With almost 80 percent of the vote, Labor endorses Mosqueda’s revenue proposal
Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda (Position 8, Citywide) debuted the JumpStart Seattle progressive revenue proposal with a broad coalition of support on Tuesday during a press conference, and after a vote last night, the Martin Luther King Labor Council has overwhelmingly endorsed the proposal.
MLK Labor Council delegates met late into the night on Wednesday, ending their meeting with 79 percent of the delegates voting to endorse Mosqueda’s JumpStart Seattle proposal, saying the progressive tax brings in much needed revenue to support existing city programs, and add new resources for COVID relief.
“Last night, MLK Labor voted in an overwhelming majority to endorse JumpStart Seattle – a principled, measured, progressive revenue proposal our community desperately needs,” said Katie Garrow, Deputy Executive Secretary of MLK Labor. “In the short term, this proposal will fill the most devastating gap in our government’s coronavirus economic response by providing immediate income relief for undocumented workers who are left out of the unemployment system. In the medium and long term, it will allow our city to deal with an impending recession by investing in infrastructure and essential city services, strategies that research show will help us recover more quickly than the 2008 austerity response did. Councilmember Mosqueda has done an outstanding job engaging workers, businesses, and community in her policy development and we are grateful for her leadership.”
“I’m honored to receive such an overwhelming level of support from MLK Labor. The affiliates have voted to join the cause along with housing advocates, immigrant rights leaders, small businesses and non-profit organizations who have signed on to support JumpStart Seattle. Together we know that investing in our local economy and in working families right now can build a more equitable economy as we emerge from this public health and economic crisis. I look forward to working with the community and my Council colleagues in the coming weeks as we craft a budget and pass progressive revenue to invest in our city’s shared values,” Mosqueda said.
JumpStart Seattle will respond to the immediate COVID crisis and focus on Seattle’s long-term economic revitalization and resiliency by investing in affordable housing and essential city services. The JumpStart Seattle Spend Plan narrative detail is linked here. The 2020 and 2021 spending plan will immediately address the COVID -19 crisis by investing in housing security, such as rental assistance programs and resources for non-profit affordable housing providers; our homelessness crisis, including further de-intensifying our shelters; food security through the city’s grocery voucher program; flexible cash assistance to support small businesses as they seek to open their doors again; and investments in core services to support working families and our most vulnerable. In 2022 and the following years, the plan focuses on building deeply affordable housing, and investing in the economic resiliency and recovery of small businesses. For more detailed information on JumpStart Seattle Spend Plan below, view this Spend Plan explainer document.
Mosqueda’s JumpStart legislation will be considered as part of the city’s budget process. The legislation will be introduced on Monday, June 22, 2020, and heard in Wednesday’s Select Budget Committee.