‘Why this group?’: Curley brands Seattle’s $300K trans funding plan as ‘pity,’ Spike pushes back

The Seattle City Council approved a $300,000 budget amendment directing JumpStart Fund dollars to LGBTQIA+ organizations serving transgender and queer people who have relocated to the city.

KIRO host John Curley said on “The John Curley Show” that the spending resembles government-funded “pity” for a special interest group, and that basic services should come first.

“Why this group? Why do we take our tax dollars and decide which special interest groups get that money?” Curley said. “It’s pity. We feel sorry for these people, and want to help them. Why not let nonprofits do that? Why do you have to take tax dollars? Why don’t we just fill potholes, have police, and provide the general services?”

Spike O’Neill, co-host of “The Jake and Spike Show,” called in to push back. O’Neill argued that the funding is not special treatment but fair use of tax dollars for a community facing hostility in other states.

“A transgender or gay person in a community is not asking for special treatment when they’re asking to be treated exactly the same as every other straight, whatever member of that same community,” O’Neill said.

Curley rejected that framing, stating that $300,000 is where it starts before the number climbs, a pattern he compared to Seattle’s spending on homelessness.

“We spent billions and billions and billions of dollars on homeless, and what we do is attract more homeless,” Curley said. “Don’t feed the bears. Why not? Because then bears learn to have the food provided for them, and it’s unsafe for them, and it’s unsafe for the person that’s anywhere near the bears.”

O’Neill fired back, arguing that the people who need help should not be blamed for how officials spend the money.

“What we need to hold accountable is the bureaucrat who’s wasting resources and siphoning off resources,” O’Neill said. “That’s the problem. Not the people who need the help.”

Curley argues nonprofits, not government, should fill the gap

Curley said his objection is not about the community being served but about the role of government itself, arguing nonprofits and individuals are better positioned to provide direct support.

“If you feel the role of government is to redistribute wealth from one group and give to another group because the people that are sitting there redistributing feel sorry for one group over another, well, then you could have that type of society, and that’s what we have right now in Seattle and King County,” Curley said.

O’Neill countered that the debate is really about priorities, not whether tax dollars should be spent at all.

“Some of us choose to spend them on those among us who need the most help,” O’Neill said. “Whether we spend it on tax breaks for big businesses or we spend it on making sure there’s a social safety net, the likes of which helped build the greatest generation of America, I think that’s a priority that we should be focusing on.”

Curley got the last word, pointing to decades of federal anti-poverty spending he said has produced little progress.

“We spent more than, I don’t know, how many trillions, $40 trillion or something already on the war on poverty, and we still haven’t won,” Curley said. “I guess we need another 40 trillion.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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