Seattle fire union pushes Mayor Wilson to drop idea to solve budget woes

Facing a $175 million budget gap that must be closed in just over six months, Mayor Katie Wilson and her team considered a novel approach: make the Fire Department self-funded.

If voters signed off on the idea to start a taxing district just for the Fire Department, the department's budget - $350 million for this year - would have its own new stream of property tax revenue separate from the general fund. In one swoop, it would essentially close the city's overall budget hole.

But the Seattle Fire Fighters Union opposed the proposal, first reported on by PubliCola, at least for now. Though the thought of having an independent source of funding had some appeal, the mayor's office timeline was too fast, said Kenny Stuart, president of the union.

"It would be impossible to accomplish this in a way we'd feel comfortable in that short period of time," he said.

The opposition was enough to get Wilson to table the idea.

The result is the city's budget picture remains unchanged. Barring a dramatically improved forecast that is unlikely to come, Wilson's options are to bring in new dollars in another way, make cuts to existing services or siphon even more money away from the city's payroll tax for new housing.

Though raising new progressive revenues animated Wilson's political rise and at least part of her campaign, the fire district was her only offer so far. The hour is getting late if she wants to try again before the end of the year.

In previous years, Seattle City Council member and budget committee Chair Dan Strauss began holding committee hearings near the start of the year. The council hasn't done that so far this year.

Wilson will formally deliver her budget proposal to the council in September, where members can make changes and send it back for her signature.

New proposed legislation is generally expected to be sent to legislative staff by May, giving them time to analyze and legally vet it, and still providing enough runway for public hearings before the August recess and fall budget season. Much later than that, and bills tend to get booted to the following year.

It's also unclear whether any proposed new revenue source would be significant or timely enough to solve the issue.

A local capital gains tax has been considered before in City Hall, but staff at the time estimated a 2% tax would likely take more than two years to get up and running and raise between $16 million and $40 million - significant but not enough to solve the puzzle.

Former Mayor Bruce Harrell, who faced the same issue as Wilson, floated his budgets via new sales taxes for public safety and by rearranging the city's business tax to land heavier on high-grossing establishments. He also relied heavily on the city's payroll tax, which was originally intended for housing but has since been used as a budget salve.

Though his approach closed the hole each year he was in office, they were temporary fixes, with forecasts showing new gaps opening up each year.

Now, there are fewer options outside of cuts for the same-sized hole.

"I have great concern at this point," Strauss said. We've already taken the low-hanging fruit over the last number of years."

Wilson has asked departments to game out 5% to 10% cuts as an exercise.

"We've been exploring many options to balance the budget and protect needed services for our residents and workers," said Jonah Spangenthal-Lee, a spokesperson for Wilson.

Public safety is the largest slice of the city's general fund budget and tends to be the most politically difficult to cut. The Seattle Police Department, after seeing the largest increase of any department this year, is projecting it will overspend its budget as it retains and hires new officers.

Though there was a suggestion in a council committee this week that budget constraints could mean slowing that process, Councilmember Bob Kettle, who chairs the public safety committee, rejected that out of hand.

"Absolutely not, absolutely not," he said. "We have a (hiring) goal and we need to hit that goal."

The discussion around a fire district was born out of recent changes to state law. Cities like Seattle could form one before, but were required to make matching reductions to their overall property tax rate, defeating the budgetary purposes.

That changed this year, and now Seattle could ask voters to fund a fire district without lowering taxes elsewhere. Additionally, any new property taxes to fund the district wouldn't count toward the city's approaching cap.

Seattle already has a district for its parks, approved in 2014. The idea is that by breaking out a separate tax stream, you can guarantee long-term funding without fear of siphoning.

The primary trade-off for voters: higher taxes.

Stuart said he gave the idea genuine consideration and didn't want to dismiss it "out of hand." There are upsides, he said, namely insulation from cuts.

"It's not a controversial service but it gets lumped in with all of the things the city can and wants and desires to provide," he said. "It's very difficult for leadership to give the Fire Department the attention it needs when they have so many other things on their plate."

At the same time, a fire district tends to be something smaller cities use to create an economy of resources. Valley Regional Fire Authority, for example, serves Algona, Auburn and Pacific. Seattle would be going it alone.

Stuart said he's concerned about being dependent on continued growth of property values. It that growth stalls, so would the Fire Department's revenue.

Above all, though, he thought the timeline was too narrow.

"Renton did it and they spent 3 ½ years talking about it and preparing for it," he said.

When he voiced his opposition to the mayor's office, "they weren't excited about it," he said of his position.

Spangenthal-Lee said the mayor's office worked for several months on the proposal before moving on.

"Fire districts typically take many years to develop, and we ultimately decided to hold on moving this forward due to time constraints," he said.

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This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 5:02 PM.