Big business goes hard against social housing funding in Seattle
Recent poll also shows elected officials in Seattle are very unpopular
Seattle News:
First off, we have an election on Tuesday, February 11, which is very soon! Recent polling shows Prop 1A (which funds social housing) and Prop 1B (which takes some JumpStart money and puts it towards something that isn’t actually social housing) being very close. The Northwest Progressive poll shows 33% of Seattleites prefer option 1A, while 31% prefer 1B.
A large amount of money has recently been spent to push 1B. As Real Change reports, “The campaign is largely sponsored by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and its membership, which includes many of the region’s largest businesses.” This includes a sizable donation from Amazon. These are the same donors who donated heavily to our current mayor and many current city councilmembers, and who are known for their failed attempt to buy the City Council elections in 2019. Mailers are being sent by the campaign against 1A that feature statements that frankly are lies.
Here is a list of recent articles about these social housing propositions:
Op-Ed: Harrell Seeks to Derail Social Housing with Deceptive Campaign Mailer
Misleading Mailers Inaccurately Imply Social Housing Is for the Rich
Op-Ed: Prop 1A Is Seattle’s Opportunity to Lead on Climate Justice
Social Housing Is a Homelessness Solution (by SHARE and WHEEL)
The same poll also features ratings for our local elected officials up for election this November:
Mayor Bruce Harrell: 36% viewed favorably, 52% viewed unfavorably
City Attorney Ann Davison: 31% viewed favorably, 31% unfavorably
Council President Sara Nelson: 24% viewed favorably, 44% unfavorably
Councilmember Alexis Rinck: 30% viewed favorably, 25% unfavorably
The poll also included ratings of job performance for all the Seattle councilmembers, none of whom fared particularly well. Only Rinck and Nelson had ratings over 20% approval, although in most cases those who were unsure made up 50% of those polled.
Meanwhile, 46% of likely Seattle November voters said they would support a Democratic challenger for Seattle City Attorney running against Davison, while only 32% said they’d vote to reelect her.
Speaking of Davison, she has a new challenger for Seattle City Attorney in Nathan Rouse, who currently works as a King County public defender. I’m hoping to sit down for an interview with Rouse soon, and one of my top goals will be to help folks differentiate between Rouse and Rory O’Sullivan, who announced his candidacy for the position last year.
If you want to go ahead and hear more from O’Sullivan right now, he published an op-ed this week about his ideas about how the Seattle City Attorney could combat “the harm and chaos caused by Trump.”
In other Sara Nelson news, her office released a campaign message without doing their proofreading first.
After The Seattle Times published an article about how the new SODA laws passed by City Council last year are not being used (it’s been invoked a single time since it went into effect in October), Nelson took to Twitter with a statement that appears to blame SPD for not implementing her pet legislation.
King County News:
King County Executive Dow Constantine released an executive order this week that will streamline and simplify the county’s inquests related to law enforcement-caused deaths.
King County appears to be engaged in an interesting political strategy to try to encourage the state legislature to raise the cap on property tax increases for municipalities. King County is currently facing a $150 million budget deficit for 2026-2027, which the county will have to address this fall during budget season. The budget proposal recently released by Constantine cuts over $85 million from the criminal legal system, which is unsurprising given what a large portion of King County’s discretionary spending goes to public safety. But cuts to other departments could be equally crippling.
Particularly hard hit in Constantine’s proposal would be the King County Sheriff’s Office with a $30.2 million cut and the Department of Community and Human Services with a $25.2 million cut. The Department of Public Health would receive a $17.6 million cut, and the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office and the Superior Court would both receive $15.5 million cuts.
HB 1334, which would raise the property tax cap for municipalities, receives its first hearing in the House Committee on Finance on Tuesday.
WA State News:
Washington State’s spending to settle lawsuits and tort claims that allege negligence or misconduct of state agencies has been rising rapidly. The state paid out $281 million in fiscal year 2024 and $223 million in fiscal year 2023. Before that, the average annual cost was $123 million. A lot of the additional cost comes from suits against the Washington State Department of Children, Youth & Families that runs the state’s child welfare investigations and foster care system.
New governor Bob Ferguson is even less accessible to the press than his predecessor Jay Inslee. Since assuming his new role about a month ago, he hasn’t held the traditional weekly press conference. His office has also been lax about notifying the press about the Governor’s upcoming public appearances.
Lastly, The Urbanist ran an op-ed this week warning that the election for a Washington State Supreme Court judge last year, in which Sal Mungia only narrowly beat Dave Larson, a dark money-backed conservative, might presage a future in which dark money wins out and puts conservative judges preferred by wealthy backers on the bench in 2027 and 2029. The piece also has some suggestions about how to avoid this outcome.
Recent Headlines:
Harrell Growth Plan Would Produce Fewer Affordable Homes Than Alternative 5
Councilmembers Claim City Didn’t Do “Broad Engagement” on Comprehensive Plan
King County Metro unveils latest idea for keeping bus drivers safer
WA superintendent blasts Trump order on transgender athletes, won’t ‘back down’
Seattle Children’s Postpones Trans Teen’s Surgery Indefinitely
Seattle Children’s halts some gender-affirming surgeries following Trump order
WA sues Trump administration over gender-affirming care for youth
Housing Advocates Outnumber ‘One Seattle’ Opponents, Moore and Rivera Back Opponents
The Emerald Welcomes Florangela Davila as Its New Executive Director
A new mental health crisis center in Lynnwood lacks operator, can’t open
Op-Ed: Wealth Tax on Megarich Would Invest in Washington State’s Future