There’s an adage: If you’re caught in a gap, cease digging.
Within the context of Seattle’s finances woes, the shoveling is simply as livid as ever.
The Seattle Metropolis Council is poised to think about compensation packages negotiated by Mayor Bruce Harrell for greater than 11,000 metropolis workers.
Based on Metropolis Corridor’s personal estimates, the agreements will add to projected deficits — deficits that have been characterised again in August as a “vital fiscal cliff.”
The rationale for the looming hole within the Normal Fund — which pays for police, fireplace, and different important providers — is straightforward. Whereas town is raking in additional taxes than ever, it’s spending much more, in keeping with the Seattle Income Stabilization Workgroup convened by Harrell and the council final yr.
Proposed labor agreements solely make the state of affairs worse.
This yr, the proposed labor prices will exceed the finances by $10 million. That’s prone to be coated by a present hiring freeze and different measures.
However in 2025, the agreements are anticipated so as to add $10 million to the deficit, bringing the entire hole to greater than $240 million. The identical goes for 2026, with an additional $15 million rising the deficit to greater than $245 million.
For a bunch of a few of the highest-paid metropolis workers, will increase in compensation will whole $25 million in 2024 and rise to just about $50 million in 2026. Relative to 2024, wage bills in 2026 could be 8.2% greater for this group, which incorporates high officers from Seattle Metropolis Mild and Seattle Public Utilities.
About 6,320 metropolis workers have a base wage of at the least $100,000 or extra. That’s earlier than time beyond regulation, which may add tens of hundreds of {dollars} — and in uncommon instances, lots of of hundreds of {dollars}.
That’s far more than the common Seattle wage of $76,122.
The mayor may have negotiated contracts with the Coalition of Metropolis Unions that raised wages for these on the lowest rung and stored salaries flatter on the high. That didn’t occur.
Additionally, the mayor may have negotiated with metropolis unions however provided separate agreements for nonrepresented workers. Traditionally, town has supplied the identical advantages and wage will increase to union and nonrepresented workers, and that holds true within the agreements now earlier than council.
When requested why the mayor didn’t pursue separate compensation agreements, the Mayor’s Workplace responded: “Up to now, makes an attempt to not present related changes to nonrepresented workers have disrupted labor concord.”
An enormous unknown is the Seattle Police Officers Guild contract, which isn’t thought-about within the deficit projections. When finalized, count on that so as to add much more to the finances disaster.
In his State of the Metropolis speech in February, Harrell stated: “The very fact is that passing a brand new or expanded tax is not going to deal with the elemental points wanted to shut this hole in the long term.”
He additionally stated: “I reject notions of austerity,” referring to finances cuts.
“As an alternative, this can be a likelihood to hit reset, to revise our budgeting practices, and to double down on the packages, tasks, and insurance policies which can be efficient and making essentially the most distinction for the folks of Seattle,” Harrell stated.
With massive labor agreements now pending at council, the brand new budgeting practices look so much just like the previous budgeting practices — kicking the can down the street and making even harder the day of fiscal reckoning that may virtually actually embody metropolis job cuts, tax will increase and repair reductions.
