(The Center Square) – The chairman of the Seattle City Council Budget Committee said he wants to review cuts in next year’s proposed city budget that would affect the city’s fire department, the 911 operations center and the Community Crisis Responders team.
Chairman Dan Strauss made those comments Thursday as the city council began reviewing Mayor Katie Wilson’s $9.1 billion budget proposal.
The mayor presented her proposed 2027-28 budget on Tuesday, which would reduce an estimated $175 million deficit by cutting more than 140 positions in the city’s 13,500-person payroll.
While most cut positions are vacant, the budget plan calls for laying off 15 employees.
“My focus in this budget is safety, affordability, and stability,” Strauss said Tuesday at the first budget hearing. “Over the past few years, we have made major strides in addressing the city’s structural budget deficit while maintaining the public services that working Seattleites depend on. That work is paying off.”
“At the same time, I have concerns with parts of this proposal, including the significant cuts to CARE Community Crisis Responders and reductions to the Seattle Fire Department’s budget,” he added.
The budget review process will last about two months. The council must pass a balanced budget by Dec. 2.
The Seattle Fire Department’s 2027 Proposed Budget includes $346 million to maintain core fire and emergency response services, with a $7.1 million reduction to its overtime budget from this year, amounting to around 17%.
In a memo to firefighters, Seattle Fire Chief Harold Scoggins said he will manage the cut through planned unit outages, reducing daily minimum staffing from 222 to 209.
“Depending on staffing levels, four to six units may be taken out of service daily to meet this reduction,” he said in the memo.
Scoggins said that could mean closing a fire house for a shift, depending on equipment availability.
The CARES cuts include leaving 14 open positions unfilled. CARES provides an alternative mental health response to persons in crisis in lieu of a police response.
The CARES department also maintains the city’s 911 emergency response system, and eight vacant 911 operator positions are eliminated in the proposed budget.
A CARE spokesperson explained the impact of the proposed cuts in an email to The Center Square.
“The CARE Department would like to expand its Community Crisis Response division to be 24/7, but was not planning on doing so in the immediate future due to anticipated potential budget challenges,” wrote Bobbie Nickel.
“As such, holding 14 positions vacant would not impact the division’s current operations,” he added. “There are currently 37 responders, and the division is hiring for two more.”
Wilson, a self-described democratic socialist, also continued to support funding “for youth, immigrants, refugees, and the LGBTQ+ community.”
The new proposed city budget sustains $4 million in ongoing support for immigrant and refugee communities, including legal defense services and rapid response programs.
It also continues a new program that Wilson announced last month with $500,000 for community organizations working with individuals who identify as transgender.
The size of the LQBTQ+ community has been increasing in liberal Seattle as some conservative states have passed restrictive measures affecting individuals who identify as transgender.
“Seattle welcomes people fleeing oppression, wherever they are from,” said Wilson in a statement in her budget “A city is not measured by how it treats the people already thriving. It is measured by whether the person struggling the most can still look up and see a future that includes them.”
Despite budget constraints, Wilson’s budget plan calls for a 13% increase to the city’s police department, up to about $1.135 billion. The general fund would direct 53% of its roughly $2 billion in spending toward public safety.
The $68 million increase would fund up to 1,250 police officer positions. The department currently has around 927 police officers.
The budget calls for no new city business taxes, with Wilson saying the city’s economy was too fragile.
“Mayor Wilson remains intent on pursuing new progressive revenue options, including a local capital gains tax, but the state timeline for implementing such a tax means it cannot close today’s gap,” noted Wilson’s statement.