Funds for student safety foreshadow fierce debate on Seattle budget

The Seattle City Council voted Tuesday to spend $12.25 million on mental health services and gun violence prevention in Seattle schools.

That number is an increase from the $10 million Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed spending earlier this year, but still less than the $20 million members of the council envisioned last year.

Councilmember Tammy Morales proposed an amendment, allocating all $20 million. It failed, 4-5.

The vote comes after several weeks of lobbying by advocates for better mental health services in Seattle schools and amid questions about how quickly city staff can realistically get the money out of the door.

It also foreshadows what are likely to be even more intense debates over funding this fall when the mayor and city council will need to close a budget gap of more than $260 million.

The seeds of Tuesday’s vote were sewn late last year, before two-thirds of the Seattle City Council turned over in January. Former members narrowly approved $20 million to help fund mental health services and gun violence prevention programs in Seattle schools. The vote came on the heels of a November 2022 fatal shooting at Ingraham High School.

The vote, spearheaded by former Councilmember Kshama Sawant, expanded a payroll tax on the city’s largest companies — including Amazon — that was approved in 2020 to fund affordable housing.

Seattle Public Schools is a separate entity which receives most of its funding from the state, though Seattle City Hall occasionally steps in to help provide supplementary services separate from basic education.

Though the council voted to expand the tax to fund mental health services, it had not yet been formally allocated. That finally happened this summer when Harrell unveiled his midyear supplemental budget proposal — when city government generally makes small tweaks to the current year’s budget — and included half that amount.

His proposal included $2.4 million for initial telehealth services and $2 million toward violence prevention. The dollars would additionally go toward scaling up existing programs.

Harrell’s argument for not rolling out the entire figure was that it’s unrealistic to expect the city to spend all $20 million before the end of the year. The chunk of money was promised by the past council without a clear plan for how it should be spent, work the mayor’s office has been doing in the months since, a spokesperson said.

“These tax dollars must be spent responsibly with coordination, equity, and accountability in mind as well as creating measurable outcomes for success,” spokesperson Callie Craighead said in an email.

At the same time, dollars from the payroll tax — which is bringing in significantly more revenue than originally forecast — could be used in the fall to help close the budget gap, should the council vote to do so.

Morales opposed Harrell’s decision, saying service providers need that money to continue and expand their work. She offered an amendment to spend all $20 million.

“We have fully funded SPD and now we must fully fund this mental health work,” she said.

She said she understood that there are shortages of certain mental health workers. “Nevertheless, what we don’t have a shortage of in Seattle is people and organizations, including our own city departments, who are committed to doing the work to enrich the lives of young people in our schools,” she said.

Her amendment only received four votes in committee, not enough for it to move forward with a recommendation to approve it. Nevertheless, she brought it back Tuesday for further consideration.

“I was on these City Hall steps two years ago advocating with our youth asking the council to do something after the Ingraham shooting,” Phil Lewis, a pastor and volunteer in Seattle Public Schools, told the council Tuesday, urging them to release the full $20 million. “This money belongs to our youth.”

Councilmember Maritza Rivera, who centered school safety in her campaign after her children were locked down in Ingraham High School at the time of the shooting, questioned the motives of the amendment. She doubted all $20 million could actually be spent and raised concerns about how much direction the previous council had provided to city departments when they set aside the money.

“I’m tired of people promising things to constituents and, most importantly, children, that we can’t deliver on,” she said Monday. “I want to make sure we can actually deliver on the promise that we make versus doing some performative action just to show that we care.”

Harrell’s deputy mayor, Tiffany Washington, echoed her comments: “Making this a conversation about the amount of money versus the right services is a way of not really focusing on what matters, which is, what are the services that will be offered, when will they be offered?” she said.

The council eventually landed on a compromise, made possible by an amendment from Councilmember Dan Strauss. He proposed increasing the funding by $2.25 million, which he believed could be spent. He doubted an additional $10 million could.

Tuesday’s vote was the last major action by the council before they go on recess for the next two weeks. In addition to the mental health funding, the council made a number of adjustments to this year’s budget, including increasing the marketing budget for the Seattle Police Department by $800,000.

When they return, most of their attention will turn toward closing the budget gap, though Councilmember Cathy Moore pledged to advocates in the room the council would return to the subject of student mental health as well.