SEATTLE (AP) - The Seattle City Council has voted unanimously to authorize spending $86 million from Seattle’s emergency reserves to provide additional relief to residents and small businesses struggling to deal with the public health and economic crises caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
It also on Monday unanimously approved a resolution laying out a detailed plan for more than $200 million per year in expected proceeds from a new tax on big businesses, allocating the lion’s share to affordable housing projects.
The Seattle Times reports that COVID-19 relief bill and the spending plan for the big-business tax are linked, because the spending plan calls for the first $86 million raised by the tax next year to be used to replenish the emergency reserves.
The council took the steps over objections from Mayor Jenny Durkan, who described them as fiscally, legally and economically risky.
Council members celebrated the actions as essential to help Seattle’s most vulnerable households survive the pandemic and to build a more resilient tax system for the city in the years ahead, with large companies paying a greater share for public services.
The Durkan administration asked the council Monday to resist taking so much from the emergency reserves for COVID-19 relief, at least until August, when more will be known about the city’s economic trajectory and about additional Congressional assistance. Seattle is dealing with a massive budget hole this year and can expect to encounter an equally large gap next year, due to the downturn and money already spent on COVID-19 relief, Senior Deputy Mayor Mike Fong and Budget Director Ben Noble wrote in an email.
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