Mayor Katie Wilson just wrapped up her first budget address, presented at the main library downtown, as she went public with a $9.1 billion proposed budget. Key points included that she said she’s “righting the ship,” presenting a budget with “no general fund deficit” through 2030, also promising “effective government” and “growing a resilient economy.” She said she’ll do that with “no new major sources of progressive revenue,” aka taxes. And she said she’s “fully funding” the current Seattle Police hiring plan, budgeting for 66 more police officers next year than this year. Her public-safety points included the only West Seattle-specific mention of the speech (which was light on geographic references otherwise), permanent funding for a teen late-night program in High Point that’s been operating as a pilot. Regarding transportation, while she said the levy-funded programs would proceed as planned, some maintenance projects (not identified in the speech) will “face delays.” Regarding city jobs overall – in a speech she opened by expressing gratitude for city workers – she said 128 jobs would be cut, mostly vacant, but 15 currently employed people would lose their jobs. Individual departments are starting to send out their summaries of what the budget means to them, so we’ll be updating this story with more details as the afternoon goes on. For starters, here’s the summary from the mayor’s office. Budget documents from her proposal are linked here.

