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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.
In response to Metropolis Corridor’s personal estimates, the agreements will add to projected deficits — deficits that had been characterised again in August as a “important fiscal cliff.”
The rationale for the looming hole within the Common Fund — which pays for police, hearth, and different important providers — is easy. Whereas the town is raking in additional taxes than ever, it’s spending much more, in accordance with the Seattle Revenue Stabilization Workgroup convened by Harrell and the council final 12 months.
Proposed labor agreements solely make the state of affairs worse.
This 12 months, the proposed labor prices will exceed the finances by $10 million. That’s more likely to be lined 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 full 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 gaggle of among the highest-paid metropolis workers, will increase in compensation will complete $25 million in 2024 and rise to almost $50 million in 2026. Relative to 2024, wage bills in 2026 can 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 very least $100,000 or extra. That’s earlier than time beyond regulation, which might add tens of hundreds of {dollars} — and in uncommon circumstances, a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars}.
That’s way more than the common Seattle wage of $76,122.
The mayor might 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 might have negotiated with metropolis unions however supplied separate agreements for nonrepresented workers. Traditionally, the 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 comparable 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, anticipate that so as to add much more to the finances disaster.
In his State of the Metropolis speech in February, Harrell mentioned: “The actual 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 mentioned: “I reject notions of austerity,” referring to finances cuts.
“As a substitute, this can be a likelihood to hit reset, to revise our budgeting practices, and to double down on the packages, initiatives, and insurance policies which are efficient and making probably the most distinction for the folks of Seattle,” Harrell mentioned.
With large labor agreements now pending at council, the brand new budgeting practices look lots just like the previous budgeting practices — kicking the can down the highway and making even harder the day of fiscal reckoning that may virtually definitely embody metropolis job cuts, tax will increase and repair reductions.
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