💰What's in next year's city budget

Seattle City Council Passes Nearly $9 Billion Budget

The 2026 budget is roughly 7% larger than the previous year, and the City Council signed off on the core tenets of outgoing Mayor Bruce Harrell’s plan while making changes to provide more rental assistance, fill budget reserves, and build a bigger cushion against possible federal spending cuts. [Seattle Times]

• Looming Budget Gap for 2027: Heavy reliance on temporary dollars to fund ongoing programs, plus inflation and rising labor costs, leaves the city with significant deficits every year. Though the 2026 budget is balanced, the city is still looking at a $140 million gap in 2027 – a problem incoming mayor Katie Wilson will inherit.
• Payroll Tax Helps Keep Budget Afloat: The progressive revenue tax on large businesses has brought in more than $300 million nearly every year since it was adopted in 2020.
• Police Spending Increases: Public safety spending increased one point to 50% in the 2026 budget proposal. Harrell’s plan proposed $40 million in new funding for the Seattle Police Department.
  • Seattle is now spending around $490 million a year on its police department, with plans to spend more than a billion total on all its public safety departments in 2026. For comparison, Seattle will spend $225 million on “homelessness response” next year. [Capitol Hill Seattle Blog]
• The plan also includes:
  • Transportation spending stayed at 5% of the general fund
  • Administration spending dropped two points to 19%
  • Arts and culture spending dropped a point to 7%
  • Education increased by one point to 15%
  • Affordability spending is up to 4%. This is in part due to the more than $11 million added as protection from possible federal cuts to the region’s homelessness system. Those new federal policies could put as much as $40 million at risk in Seattle.

We explained how these cuts could lead to 4,500 Seattleites losing permanent supportive housing and what the City Council wants to do about it last week on the podcast with Publicola’s Erica C. Barnett.

Seattle Aquarium Welcomes Ruby the Southern Sea Otter 🦦

Seattle gained a new resident last week as Ruby joined northern sea otters Mishka and Sekiu. Ruby was rescued as a stranded 1-day-old pup. Weighing just 1.9 pounds, she was one of the smallest pups her rescuers had ever encountered. After being raised in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s surrogacy program, Ruby attempted several times to return to life in the wild but was ultimately deemed non-releasable because of her reliance on humans for food. [KING 5]

Park Coyotes Getting Too Comfortable with Humans 🌳

At the Washington Park Arboretum, a coyote reportedly bit a dog on a leash and snatched food near a person. As a result, the coyote was trapped and killed last week. Coyotes are considered “a normal part of our local urban wildlife,” according to Seattle Parks. It’s only every two to three years that one needs to be trapped and killed. [Seattle Times]

• “Haze Them to Save Them” A task force assembled by Seattle Parks, the University of Washington, and others suggests making yourself seem big, making noise, and throwing objects toward, but not at, coyotes if you spot one. [Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife]

Puget Sound Water is Acidifying Very Fast, Alarming Experts 🪸

The waters of the Puget Sound are more susceptible to acidification, and it’s not only happening faster than expected but also faster than other places around the world, according to a Climate Lab report from the Seattle Times.

• What Does Acidification Do? It can kill the tiny creatures that are the base of underwater food chains, as well as coral reefs, and it can even affect oysters, crabs, and mussels’ ability to make shells. It also increases the number of toxic algae blooms, which makes waters unswimmable in the summer (boooo!).
• How Can I Help? Decreasing emissions! You can let our representatives know this is important to you, as well as use more public transportation. Seattle has a plan for 90% Zero-Emission Personal Trips.

Seattle Public Schools Looks to Limit Student Cell Phone Use 🤳🏼

The district is looking for community input to shape the policy with the goal of starting during the 2026-27 school year. [Seattle Times]

Seattle Public Schools Hires Next Superintendent 🎒

Ben Shuldiner is a district leader from the Lansing School District, where he was superintendent for nearly five years. The central Michigan school district enrolls less than a quarter of Seattle Public Schools’ roughly 50,000 students. Shuldiner will make a total of $425,000 — about 9% more than the previous superintendent, but still less than superintendents in several smaller Western Washington districts. [KUOW]