Committee debates arts-admissions tax and funds Sadako statue replacement, theater upgrades

Central staff presented several arts items in the balancing package, including reduced and reallocated funding levels and a proposal to change the treatment of arts admission-tax revenue. Director Noble said the chair’s packet reduces one prior request and reallocates amounts to ensure maintenance funding is included for the Sadako statue replacement.

Specific arts items described by staff included $300,000 of general fund for theater upgrades (a reduction from a prior $500,000 ask) and $500,000 to support the installation and maintenance of a replacement Sadako statue (an increase from a prior $200,000 request). Noble said the increased statue amount would cover installation and ongoing maintenance costs.

On the policy side, staff presented a proposal to classify $1.5 million of arts-admissions-tax revenue directed to city functions as onetime for the 2025–26 biennium, with $500,000 continuing as an ongoing allocation to fund Festol and associated ethnic-festival programming at Seattle Center. Noble cautioned the committee that the broader question of whether ad-tax revenues should fund city functions would likely be revisited in 2027 because sustaining those activities long-term would require a general-fund appropriation if ad-tax receipts were not used.

Council members clarified which programs the arts funds would support (downtown buskers, parks teen performing arts, Seattle Folklife/Festol, Winterfest and other functions) and asked how future funding obligations would be tracked; staff said the CBAs and packet materials identify which elements are onetime and which are ongoing and that prior versions remain available in the record.