Strong Election Night Tallies shows that Seattle is set to approve new business tax for social housing plus two school charges

On By Littum

(Image: House our neighbors)

A low turnout in February apparently will not prevent Seattle from making progress in funding its new social housing developer and supporting the renewal of two school taxes.

Election Evening First Tallies shows voters who approve a new tax to finance the city’s new housing program and thus reject one Seattle City Council Supported alternative, as critics said would have limited the new effort. 68% of voters in the first count approved the financing of the developer. More than 57.5% said the city should move forward with the new business fee.

With approval, the measure adds a 5% tax for businesses for every dollar over a million paid to a Seattle employee in annual compensation, including wages, stocks and bonuses to finance the city’s new public social housing developer. The House our neighbors Group behind the pay tax proposal says it would add up to about $ 50 million a year to finance the development authority and power its ability to borrow to build or acquire 2,000 units over 10 years.

Support for the new tax, the City Council’s alternative transitions of $ 10 million that would have spent existing jump start financing and limited the social housing developer to offer affordable housing to only the city’s lowest income levels and hope of creating affordable housing across multiple income levels.

In February 2023, the 135 initiative won to create a Seattle Social Housing Developer easily with 57% of voters approving the proposal. But the program came without financing components due to restrictions imposed on the state’s initiative process. Meanwhile, public development authorities do not have tax authority in Washington.

Last July, Seattle Social Housing Developer announced his first leader where he announced that Roberto Jimenez has been appointed to his preliminary CEO.

In contrast to the existing Seattle Housing Authority There are only low -income residents, the new social housing authority is free of federal restrictions on income levels, which means its housing could be made available to tenants with earnings from 0% to 120% of median income tenants across its properties.

Meanwhile Seattle -voters also easily approved two tax renewals to Seattle public schools. The new operations Levy will give SPS $ 747 million to pay its faculty and staff, while the capital tax, which is approved on Tuesday, weighs to around $ 1.8 billion to help the district improve its campuses and construct new buildings and facilities.

The city’s voters have typically enthusiastically supported the school’s expenses in previous votes. The district could use the boost. State’s 1% ceiling on tax revenue presents a Complicated limitation It limits the total revenue collected in the property tax to 1% annually and can leave local authorities shrinking to keep up with inflation.

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