Seattle’s 2026 proposed budget balances record housing spending with new public-safety revenue plan

The City Budget Office presented the mayor’s 2026 proposed budget to the Seattle City Council Select Budget Committee on Sept. 25, a spending plan the office described as balanced while relying on a mix of spending reductions, revised forecasts and new revenues.

The proposal includes a record level of affordable-housing investment — about $349.5 million for 2026 — assumes passage of a 0.1% public-safety sales tax that would raise roughly $39 million, and sets aside up to $28–30 million of anticipated new B&O (business-and-occupation) tax proceeds to respond to federal funding cuts affecting food assistance, immigrant and refugee services and emergency rental aid.

Why it matters: Budget director Dan Eder and central staff told the committee that the city arrived at a balanced proposal amid large swings in revenue forecasts this year, a continuing multiyear gap between rising costs and revenues, and specific, time-sensitive federal policy changes that the mayor and staff said could leave Seattle with sudden funding shortfalls.

Eder said, “The mayor’s proposed budget is fully balanced.” He and central staff described three broad categories used to reach balance: spending reductions and underspend realized in 2024–25, new revenue measures, and an improved August revenue forecast that partially offset a large spring forecast shortfall.

How the budget was balanced and where the money goes - Spending adjustments: The executive identified roughly $65 million of general-fund savings from 2024, expects about $30 million of underspend in 2025, and gathered department ideas that produced about…