Earlier today, I transmitted my 2021 Proposed Budget to the City Council and delivered my annual budget address. To say that we?re currently in a challenging budget environment is an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic downturn have decimated the City?s finances. Many of the revenues that we rely on to fund city services - like sales tax or commercial parking tax - have stalled significantly due to the lack of economic activity in our City and country.

A budget is a reflection of our priorities and values. With the pandemic and unexpected new emergencies, like the West Seattle Bridge, wildfire smoke and collapsing piers we can?t avoid hard choices in this budget. But even in a time of tough decisions, history demands that we meet the challenges of this moment and strive to build the kind of city we want to be when we come out of these crisis: stronger, more just, and more equitable

In the midst of one of the most challenging moments in our City?s history, our $6.5 billion budget continues to provide city services while prioritizing investments in four key priority areas:

• Continuing to address the COVID-19 pandemic with our free citywide testing and investments in meals, small business grants, grocery vouchers, rental assistance, childcare, and utility program discounts;
• Making the City?s largest-ever investment in racial equity and justice with a $100 million commitment to Black, Indigenous, and People of Color communities while protecting our ongoing commitments;
• Addressing our homelessness and housing crisis by supporting the City?s current 2,300 shelter units, continuing outreach to unsheltered individuals, and exploring new strategies to expand shorter term shelters and programs that we know work like rapid rehousing, and;
• Building true community safety while also re-imagining policing by investing in programs to prevent violence, create alternatives to incarceration and shift some of the 800,000 calls for help from armed police officers to other programs.

If you have a few minutes, I hope you can watch my budget address below, or go here to watch it on the Seattle Channel YouTube Channel.

Click to play Mayor Durkan's 2021 Budget Address

To holistically balance the budget - especially the new investments in our COVID-19 response, homelessness and $100 million commitment to BIPOC communities - ?we are using every current resource available to the City, including $52.5 million of our emergency and rainy day reserves, $18 million in other one-time resources, wage reductions for non-represented employees, delays to capital projects, and reductions to many of our city departments.

We are still in the middle of a number of unprecedented challenges in our region. A global pandemic, a civil rights reckoning, and an economic downturn have forced us to ensure our budget priorities reflects the values of our City.

This week, I?ll have more to share about more detailed plan on reimagining policing and addressing homelessness in the region.

As always, please continue to write me at?[email protected], reach out via?Twitter?and?Facebook, and stay up-to-date on the work we?re doing for the people of Seattle on?my blog.