A Statement of Joint Principles for the 2021 Seattle City Budget Process

We are a broad group of racial justice coalitions, environmental justice/climate organizations, labor unions, service providers, and other community groups, committed to the following principles for the 2021 Seattle budget process:

1. Our struggles to build a more equitable Seattle are interconnected. Divesting from police systems and investing in Black communities goes hand in hand with climate justice work and housing justice work. The places in our city where inequality cuts most deeply are also the places most heavily policed. We demand a just transition from all the systems that continue to oppress Black communities and our planet, including a just transition of jobs, democratic governance and budget-making.

2. We must transform our City budget away from one that invests heavily in policing, prosecuting, and jailing BIPOC communities, toward one that invests in building self-determined, dignified, productive and ecologically sustainable livelihoods, democratic governance, and ecological resilience. Building a city where policing is no longer possible requires collective work. This includes a commitment to exploring a transition of civilian workers into other departments where services are not linked to policing or the threat of criminalization.  

3. Those closest to the problems are closest to the solutions. Black, brown, Indigenous, and immigrant communities are most harmed by COVID-19, climate injustice, racism, and criminalization, and should be central to the process of transforming Seattle’s budget into one that serves all people.

4. We will work in unity to further our collective, connected aims towards a more equitable Seattle that ensures a healthy future for all. Our taxpayer dollars must be better invested. We refuse to be pitted against each other, to battle between ourselves over millions of dollars in the city budget, while billions of dollars have been guaranteed decade after decade to police and imprisonment of our community members.

5. To ensure a healthy and just climate future for all, Seattle’s Green New Deal must be anti-racist, pro-worker and led by Black, Indigenous and communities of color. Divesting police funding into community solutions like healthcare, affordable housing and good jobs is an essential step towards realizing the City’s Green New Deal commitments.

Putting these principles into practice for the 2021 budget cycle will mean we will advocate to:

1. Fundamentally democratize the city budget process by advocating together for the $100 million promised by the mayor to BIPOC communities to be distributed through a participatory budgeting process carried out in the first half of 2021. The participatory budgeting process will be an opportunity for us to come together to determine investment priorities that can generate true public health and safety for all Seattle residents. We oppose a Mayor-driven taskforce with hand-picked, appointed members, as it does not reflect a community-designed and driven democratic process.

2. Refuse to compete with each other for funding, when we know all our efforts are mutually reinforcing. The $100 million investment should not come from Jumpstart Seattle corporate tax revenue that is already allocated for other vital needs, including affordable housing, equitable development, Green New Deal investments, rental assistance, small business assistance, immigrant and refugee communities, and preserving city services and jobs from recession-driven cuts.

3. Reject an austerity approach to the budget and instead seek new progressive revenue to sustain and expand city services during this difficult time. Jumpstart Seattle legislation passed earlier this year is an important first step toward supporting Seattle communities and bolstering our local economy. However, more must be done to protect and expand the city’s investments in transportation, housing and human services, families, neighborhoods and small businesses. Cuts in any of these areas will make the pandemic-recession and its impacts even worse, especially for Black, Indigenous, and communities of color, as well as low-income communities. Damage done now will be harder and more expensive to reverse in the future.

Given the interconnected challenges we face, we know our solidarity on the city budgeting process is the best path forward for all of our communities. We pledge to work together towards a budget that gives us the best chance of surviving the current pandemic and climate crisis. Together, we will make the structural changes necessary to transform this city into one that works for all of us.

To access statement alongside list of current signatories, please visit: https://tinyurl.com/Solidarity206