Explainers
January 4, 2023January 6, 2023By Jesse Franz
Seattle Green New Deal funding goes to a vote

The Seattle City Council will vote Tuesday on how to spend $6.5 million it set aside in the 2022 Green New Deal Opportunity Fund. These investments will go toward community resilience and addressing climate change.

The funding for these investments were made possible by the JumpStart Seattle progressive tax sponsored by Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda.

These investments are the result of the first recommendations from the Green New Deal Oversight Board — a diverse group of 19 community members tasked with making recommendations for eliminating the city’s climate pollution.

“Thank you to the Green New Deal Oversight Board, staff at the Office of Sustainability and the Environment, and the Mayor’s Office for your work in fulfilling the JumpStart Seattle spending plan investments in the Green New Deal,” said Councilmember Mosqueda. “We need these, and more, investments in climate resilience and forward-thinking, creative solutions to the extreme crisis that faces our communities.” 

The Recommendations

Funding is being provided to the following departments for the following priorities:

  • Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS) will receive $610,341 for the Municipal Energy Efficiency Program. This funding will support decarbonizing municipal facilities, with a particular focus on facilities used by the public.
  • The Office of Housing will receive $2,000,000 for engineering analyses and capital costs required to convert affordable housing projects currently in development to fully electrified cooking and climate control systems.
  • The Office of Planning and Community Development will receive $1,350,000 for
    resiliency projects associated with the Duwamish Valley Program and the Duwamish Valley Action Plan.
  • The Office of Sustainability and Environment will receive $806,198. $430,000 will support resilience hub planning and community engagement, funding that will cover temporary staffing, consultant contracts, and citywide coordination. $276,198 will fund a partnership to develop cumulative community health and resilience indicators that can inform climate and resiliency planning in City and City-funded programming. $100,000 will support community engagement in partnership with the Green New Deal Oversight Board to inform the climate element of the Comprehensive Plan Update.
  • The Seattle Department of Transportation will receive $25,000 to help support crossdepartmental efforts with Seattle City Light and the Office of Sustainability and Environment around Transportation Electrification Planning. Specifically, this funding will support the collection of transportation energy and activity data that can be used to track departmental and citywide climate goals. This funding will supplement funding provided in the 2022 Adopted Budget and funding from Seattle City Light.
  • The Seattle Public Library will receive $1,700,000 to fund electrification, heating, cooling, and air quality upgrades at both the Northeast and Southwest Branches of the Seattle Public Library. This item allows completion of projects initially funded by a Council Budget Action in the 2022 Adopted. These original General Fund amounts were made unavailable by weaker-than-expected General Fund collections.

What’s Next?

The Council’s Finance and Housing Committee unanimously voted in favor of legislation allocating the funding. It now goes to a vote of the full Council on Tuesday at 2 PM.

The Green New Deal Advisory Board will make similar recommendations next year for the next round of funding.