Influence Seattle’s Budget This Year

The city budget is the primary mechanism by which the city sets its priorities for the coming year. The Seattle Solidarity Budget (SB) is a coalition of individuals and organizations who seek to influence the budget to provide for community health and safety through non-carceral means. Your voice is needed to give SB demands maximum traction.

There are two opportunities in the coming week to make your voice heard. Spread the word!

• Friday’s Budget Committee meeting, Oct 27, at 9:30 am. Email council or provide public comment at the start of the meeting. Talking points and sample email are here: https://bit.ly/change-seattle-budget 

• Join the SB Action Team for a daytime event on Tuesday, Oct 31. We’ll gather at 12:30pm outside City Hall and enter the building at 1pm. Our demand is that council defund the SPD’s bloated budget by $31M, which is the equivalent of 213 Ghost Cops. There will be costumes and dancing. We’ll be finished around 1:45 pm.

The top half of the image looks like a dollar bill, but with CM Nelson’s face in the middle, and text that reads:

• Community members demand NO FUNDS FOR GHOST COPS

• October 31st, 2023, 1:00 PM at City Hall

• $31M for literally nothing

• Defund these 213 SPD salaries

• In cops we don’t trust

The bottom half of the image includes “NO GHOST COPS” in font that appears to be dripping. It goes on, “SPD will get $31M for 213 ghost cops in 2024. These are phantom positions SPD has NO plan or ability to fill. This $31,000,000 constitutes a SLUSH FUND for SPD to spend on more guns & ammo, more racist surveillance technology, more tasers, and more cop hiring and retention bonuses. Tell council to DEFUND SPD and the ghost cops. Follow this QR code or visit https://tinyurl.com/no-ghost-cops for a sample email you can cut and paste.”

Next to the QR code are the words, “Ghost cops eat funding! SPD’s budget is corrupted!”

Job opportunity

350 Seattle, a major SB coalition member, is hiring! The application deadline is November 12th. The job is for a Campaign Director position. The pay and benefits are good, the hours are somewhat flexible, and the start time is relatively soon. There is a lot of work ahead of us.