‘Tax me more’: Curley mocks Katie Wilson’s $1.3B spending plan for child care, education

Following the 80% approval of Proposition 1, a $1.3 billion Families, Education, Preschool, and Promise Levy renewal, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson announced her priorities for where the city will look to spend it.

Wilson put a focus on education and child care, which would expand day care hours and provide additional meals for children.

The levy is expected to draw funding through increased property taxes. Based on Seattle’s average home price of $872,000, the levy would add roughly $600 annually in property taxes.

“The people of Seattle just really can’t get enough of taxes. The new one is $1.3 billion, which will allow the government to feed your children, because God forbid you feed your kids,” John Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Also, they want to have a day care that’s open for a longer period of time, more daycare centers, so that the government can also help raise your child. The people in Seattle are all in on it, ‘Yeah, tax me. Tax me more.’ Then I guess the story got kind of overlooked, because while Katie Wilson was talking all about it, shocking that somebody was shooting at somebody. Wouldn’t it have been ironic if she were there to talk about how much safer the city is?”

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson was escorted away from the end of her Tuesday evening news conference after gunfire was heard nearby. Wilson was announcing her proposal for Seattle Public Schools to offer free meals to all students at the Yesler Community Center.

Curley questions whether renters who backed the levy realize they’ll share the cost

Curley acknowledged Seattle voters have shown enthusiasm for levies like this one, but questioned whether they fully understand who ends up footing the bill.

“[Wilson’s] pushing for this thing to make it more affordable,” Curley said. “She says she’s expanding the meals for everybody, the city’s going to roll out 600 day care slots, and all you have to do is get the rest of the council to go along with it. Final approval is expected soon. The city leaders are rolling out the benefits fueled by a massive tax hike, calling it affordability.

“I’ve learned, I have a love-hate relationship with ChatGPT. I love to hate ChatGPT. I wrote [to ChatGPT], ‘Do the people of Seattle, do renters tend to vote yes for tax increases?” Curley continued. “How many renters know that when the property tax comes in, the landlord just takes the bill and divides it over the number of units in the building? Do you think a lot of other people know that?”

“I don’t think when they vote on a levy they assume, ‘Oh, well, I’m not going to bear any of these costs,'” KIRO producer Joe Wallace said.

“They just like the idea,” Curley responded. “The other weird part of it is that the number of renters who also have children is very low. So why would they vote to have the government feed people’s kids?”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Follow @https://twitter.com/jcurleyshow