(The Center Square) – Seattle could lose $1.45 million in graffiti removal and prevention funding next year under Mayor Katie Wilson’s first budget proposal as the city faces a $175 million general fund deficit.
Wilson outlined her $9.1 billion proposal last month, which reduces the shortfall to roughly $23 million through various transfers, cuts, and other measures. She plans to use available fund balance to fill the rest of that gap, which is expected to continue through at least 2029, assuming her assumptions hold.
However, citywide and general fund spending are still set to increase in 2027. Some departments and agencies are being asked to tighten their belts, while others are reprioritizing, finding efficiencies and increasing spending to cover inflation and/or new investments, including Seattle Parks and Recreation.
“These are not hard choices. These are wrong choices, and we can see it every day on our streets,” Councilmember Robert Kettle said during Wednesday’s Select Budget Committee meeting with SPR.
Kettle criticized Wilson’s spending decisions when it comes to public safety, arguing that just years ago Seattle wanted to “defund” public safety; he said the city is now dealing with an “unfund” movement.
Wilson proposed a $500,000 cut to SPR’s graffiti abatement and prevention work, alongside $950,000 in one-time funds for private-property graffiti abatement in 2026, which will expire at the end of 2026.
The $1.45 million combined reduction from 2026 leaves $3.3 million in SPR’s graffiti removal budget, with $1.6 million available in the Seattle Department of Transportation’s budget for that work as well.
SPR’s total budget would ultimately rise to $399.9 million under Wilson’s proposal, up 10%, from 2026.
Still, despite increased spending, taxpayers might see less abatement activity going on across Seattle.
“This unfunding is going to hurt our public safety posture. It’s going to hurt our economic revitalization of downtown and other parts of our city, which in turn will only make our budget challenges even worse in the years ahead,” Kettle said, referring to the graffiti abatement and Unified Care Team cuts.
The UTC program connects homeless people with services, removes trash and resolves encampments.
UTC also faces a $900,000 cut of its own under Wilson’s proposal, which the council took issue with.
According to a council budget analysis, SPR doesn’t expect either of the reductions to affect services.
However, in that same document, council staff warn that removing the graffiti funding would reduce capacity for new removal strategies and cover unexpected expenses.
When it comes to the $950,000 in expiring funds, SPR’s ability to abate graffiti on private properties “would be significantly impacted.”
Last year, the council passed a policy that imposed a fine of up to $1,500 per graffiti violation and holds taggers financially liable for the labor and materials required for abatement. The policy cites $6.3 million in spending on graffiti removal in 2023 and $5.9 million in 2024 on public property alone.
In 2024, Seattle recorded illegal graffiti at nearly 30,000 city-owned properties. So far in 2026, the city received about 26,750 removal requests from January through September, with three months to go.
“This mayor does not have a public safety plan,” Councilmember Maritza Rivera said regarding the Wilson’s plan to cut $1.45 million from graffiti abatement and $900,000 from UTC. “… It is hard for me to understand what the thought process was behind the cuts to UTC and even graffiti abatement.”
According to city data, law enforcement has made at least 34 arrests for “PROP DESTRUCTION/GRAFFITI” in Seattle over the past 12 months; however, in some cases, the suspects were not taken into custody.
According to a report presented to the council in 2025, “Few graffiti cases have meaningful outcomes.”
The data showed that from 2017 to 2025, only 11% of graffiti cases ended in a guilty verdict, 62% were dismissed, 0% were found not guilty, and 27% were considered unresolved at the time. The report says graffiti cases remain in warrant status for long periods, causing resolution to take years.
“We cannot rely on a wish or hope strategy to achieve our public safety goals,” Kettle said.
Riviera said one of the organizations the city contracts with for private property graffiti abatement is Uplift Northwest, which provides job training and employment to people on the street and in poverty.
She recognized that the $950,000 for private property removal was one-time funding, but said Wilson found money for other one-time projects, criticizing the mayor for not doing so in this case as well.
The Center Square reached out to Uplift Northwest to ask how the organization could be impacted.
“Uplift Northwest has not received notification of any reductions to our graffiti abatement funding or services. As such, we are not in a position to speculate about potential impacts of the proposed City budget or changes to future service levels,” Troy Coalman, Uplift’s chief impact officer, wrote in an email to The Center Square.