TRUMP-PROOF SEATTLE
Seattle receives about $150 million annually in federal funds, for uses including transportation, housing, medical assistance, public safety, and senior services.
On top of that, proposed cuts to SNAP food assistance, Medicaid, and other federal programs will impact Seattle residents and increase the demand for local aid and services.
The City must raise new progressive revenue to continue to deliver the services residents depend on, from libraries and parks to shelter and public safety. I served on the Seattle Revenue Stabilization Workgroup in 2023 and did extensive research into our revenue options. Unfortunately, Harrell’s administration shelved that work and we’re now on the back foot as the City faces a growing structural budget shortfall, on top of the new threats to federal support.
The City must play an active role in educating employers, institutions, and the public about what to do when ICE is at the door. Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs is stepping up, but with leadership from the Mayor’s Office we can do more.
Support legal services for immigrants and work in lockstep with immigrant community organizations that are building rapid response networks to support at-risk and detained individuals with in-language and culturally competent assistance.
Work with the City Attorney’s Office to join and initiate lawsuits to stop illegal measures harmful to Seattle residents and communities from moving forward.
Review and strengthen Seattle's sanctuary city ordinance, which hasn't been updated in over 20 years. Review the City's data collection and storage practices to ensure we are not at risk of sharing data with Federal immigration agencies.
Ensure that the Seattle Police Department is complying with the Keep Washington Working Act and not assisting in arrests for civil immigration violations. Direct SPD to stop and identify individuals in plain clothes who claim to be federal ICE agents – as several cities (e.g. Huntington Park, CA) have instructed their law enforcement to do. File FOIA requests to demand transparency around ICE operations, as Boston has done.
Explore establishing an Asylum Seeker Rapid Rehousing voucher program that provides a two year housing subsidy while newly arriving migrants secure work permits to become self-sufficient and apply for asylum.
Seattle will continue to be a target for far-right and fundamentalist groups seeking confrontations to turn our city into a symbol on the national stage. We can’t continue to be caught on the back foot. As mayor, I will work closely with LGBTQ community leaders and groups on strategies to defuse conflict and keep our communities safe.
Work with the school district to address threats to funding and attacks on schools that do not bow to federal demands that go against Seattle’s values of inclusion and diversity.
Work to defend access to reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care for Seattle residents, and to ensure the safety and protection of those who travel here to access care.
As attacks on LGBTQ communities escalate across the nation, people are moving to Seattle because we stand up for our neighbors. The City can do more to support community groups that are helping LGBTQ and particularly trans people to navigate the challenging housing and job markets in our high-cost city. We must also ensure that Seattle has shelters that are welcoming and safe for queer and trans people, who are overrepresented among the homeless population.
Seattle can’t be a true sanctuary city if ICE can access data about you through City policies and programs that could have been better designed. The City must also be mindful of any data collection related to individuals who travel to our state to access abortion services and gender-affirming care.
Revisit SPD's Crime Prevention Technology pilot with an eye towards the storage and potential use of collected data and impacts on vulnerable populations.
Explore strengthening the city’s Surveillance Ordinance to ensure that any new technology is being considered with the seriousness it deserves, especially in its impacts on communities that may become targets of the federal administration.
Ensure that the Seattle Police Department isn’t borrowing unapproved surveillance technologies from neighboring "mutual aid agencies.”
We can do more than react. We can pioneer local solutions to big national problems. Political polarization, misinformation and disinformation — Trump’s rise was possible in part because independent, fact-based journalism, the kind that holds power to account, is in crisis.
Seattle can show the way to a viable journalism funding model for the 21st century. We can enable residents to allocate public funds to their favorite local news outlets, through a mechanism similar to our pathbreaking Democracy Voucher program. A tenth of one percent of the current city budget could support 50 new full-time reporters. Democracy does die in darkness and we can’t rely on billionaires to keep the lights on.
One of my first political acts in Seattle was joining the massive march for immigrants’ and workers’ rights on May 1, 2006. That’s the Seattle I believe in. We stand up for the most vulnerable. We believe in democracy, climate action, robust public services, and good jobs. But all of that is under threat like never before.
We know what’s coming, because it’s already happening. Cuts to safety net programs, cuts to federal grants that support local services and infrastructure projects, tax cuts for the rich, attacks on the most vulnerable members of our communities. We need city leaders who will step up to the challenge and defend against federal cuts and overreach.
I vow to protect our neighbors and defend Seattle’s status as a sanctuary city. We must also step up to fill in the funding gaps, or we will find ourselves unable to deliver the basic services that people depend on. I co-wrote the book on Seattle’s progressive revenue options. As mayor I will develop and advance the most viable proposals — including a city-level capital gains tax — to make sure that progress in Seattle does not grind to a halt due to loss of federal support.
A note on the phrase “Trump-Proof Seattle:” Some readers will remember a 2017 campaign for a city income tax on high-income households, which I helped to coordinate, that was inspired by Trump’s first election. Here we are eight years later, again having to think about how to protect ourselves and our neighbors from the actions of an even more virulent federal administration.
Seattle receives about $150 million annually in federal funds, for uses including transportation, housing, medical assistance, public safety, and senior services.
On top of that, proposed cuts to SNAP food assistance, Medicaid, and other federal programs will impact Seattle residents and increase the demand for local aid and services.
The City must raise new progressive revenue to continue to deliver the services residents depend on, from libraries and parks to shelter and public safety. I served on the Seattle Revenue Stabilization Workgroup in 2023 and did extensive research into our revenue options. Unfortunately, Harrell’s administration shelved that work and we’re now on the back foot as the City faces a growing structural budget shortfall, on top of the new threats to federal support.
The City must play an active role in educating employers, institutions, and the public about what to do when ICE is at the door. Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs is stepping up, but with leadership from the Mayor’s Office we can do more.
Support legal services for immigrants and work in lockstep with immigrant community organizations that are building rapid response networks to support at-risk and detained individuals with in-language and culturally competent assistance.
Work with the City Attorney’s Office to join and initiate lawsuits to stop illegal measures harmful to Seattle residents and communities from moving forward.
Review and strengthen Seattle's sanctuary city ordinance, which hasn't been updated in over 20 years. Review the City's data collection and storage practices to ensure we are not at risk of sharing data with Federal immigration agencies.
Ensure that the Seattle Police Department is complying with the Keep Washington Working Act and not assisting in arrests for civil immigration violations. Direct SPD to stop and identify individuals in plain clothes who claim to be federal ICE agents – as several cities (e.g. Huntington Park, CA) have instructed their law enforcement to do. File FOIA requests to demand transparency around ICE operations, as Boston has done.
Explore establishing an Asylum Seeker Rapid Rehousing voucher program that provides a two year housing subsidy while newly arriving migrants secure work permits to become self-sufficient and apply for asylum.
Seattle will continue to be a target for far-right and fundamentalist groups seeking confrontations to turn our city into a symbol on the national stage. We can’t continue to be caught on the back foot. As mayor, I will work closely with LGBTQ community leaders and groups on strategies to defuse conflict and keep our communities safe.
Work with the school district to address threats to funding and attacks on schools that do not bow to federal demands that go against Seattle’s values of inclusion and diversity.
Work to defend access to reproductive healthcare and gender-affirming care for Seattle residents, and to ensure the safety and protection of those who travel here to access care.
As attacks on LGBTQ communities escalate across the nation, people are moving to Seattle because we stand up for our neighbors. The City can do more to support community groups that are helping LGBTQ and particularly trans people to navigate the challenging housing and job markets in our high-cost city. We must also ensure that Seattle has shelters that are welcoming and safe for queer and trans people, who are overrepresented among the homeless population.
Seattle can’t be a true sanctuary city if ICE can access data about you through City policies and programs that could have been better designed. The City must also be mindful of any data collection related to individuals who travel to our state to access abortion services and gender-affirming care.
Revisit SPD's Crime Prevention Technology pilot with an eye towards the storage and potential use of collected data and impacts on vulnerable populations.
Explore strengthening the city’s Surveillance Ordinance to ensure that any new technology is being considered with the seriousness it deserves, especially in its impacts on communities that may become targets of the federal administration.
Ensure that the Seattle Police Department isn’t borrowing unapproved surveillance technologies from neighboring "mutual aid agencies.”
We can do more than react. We can pioneer local solutions to big national problems. Political polarization, misinformation and disinformation — Trump’s rise was possible in part because independent, fact-based journalism, the kind that holds power to account, is in crisis.
Seattle can show the way to a viable journalism funding model for the 21st century. We can enable residents to allocate public funds to their favorite local news outlets, through a mechanism similar to our pathbreaking Democracy Voucher program. A tenth of one percent of the current city budget could support 50 new full-time reporters. Democracy does die in darkness and we can’t rely on billionaires to keep the lights on.