Everything starts at Mayor Wilson's proposed 2027 budget, and each item also shows how it compares to 2026. Adjust taxes on the left and spending on the right. The balance below shows the resulting surplus or deficit. Fund, cut, or add programs. Then generate revenue (taxes) to get it done. You can adjust the rates & progressivity of taxes, be creative, and add your own ideas.
The budget numbers are drawn from existing, public budgets but are simplified and grouped into categories (more below). It shows only the General Fund, not all of Seattle's budget. These numbers are not meant to be an accurate reflection of the budget or of the city's priorities.
The baseline is Mayor Wilson's 2027 Proposed Budget for the General Fund, from the City's 2027-2028 Proposed Budget book (General Fund Revenue Forecast, pp. 44-45; Expenditure Summary Tables 1-7; General Fund Financial Plan, p. 643; see also the Budget Overview and department detail at openbudget.seattle.gov ): about $2,070M in revenue and $2,026M in department appropriations, grouped into this tool's categories. Property Tax includes the Medic One EMS levy; Sales Tax includes the criminal-justice sales tax; Utility Tax combines private and public utility taxes; JumpStart Payroll Tax is the transfer from the Payroll Expense Tax Fund, not that tax's full citywide yield; Admissions & Other Taxes is all remaining revenue, including grants, fund-balance transfers, fees, fines, and interest.
The City's plan carries revenue about $44M above appropriations (plus a $10M assumed underspend) into reserves and fund balance, so the baseline shows a modest surplus rather than exactly $0 in this tool. The proposal includes no new taxes: the roughly $175M starting deficit is closed mainly by spending cuts and by shifting about half the City's homelessness-response costs from the General Fund to the JumpStart Fund (Human Services' General Fund budget falls from $286M to $217M).
The Millionaire Tax, Capital Gains Tax, Rent Freeze, and Youth Services are hypothetical or not-currently-distinct additions, not part of the actual city budget or current department structure.
"From 2026" comparisons use the City's 2026 Adopted Budget (2026 Adopted Budget Book , revenue tables pp. 41-42 and Expenditure Summary pp. 34-36), grouped the same way as the baseline: about $2,019M in revenue and $2,012M in department appropriations. JumpStart is the "Transfer from Payroll Expense Tax Fund" revenue line in both years. Custom items are compared to $0 in 2026, and figures are rounded to the nearest $1M, so a comparison can differ from the source books by about $1M.
Presets offer illustrative starting points, not proposals. The three "Focused" presets keep total spending equal to the baseline ($2,026M) and push one priority to a fixed target - transportation $350M, housing $500M plus an $80M rent freeze, or youth services $200M - funded by proportional cuts to every other category. They show what the same size budget could look like with different priorities, not a plan to spend more. Statewide JumpStart Tax models the JumpStart transfer returning to its pre-cut $265M level, on the premise that a state-level version would reduce employers relocating outside Seattle to avoid it. Capital Gains Tax models a hypothetical $150M in local capital-gains-style revenue, loosely informed by the scale of Washington State's own capital gains excise tax. Presets only set the categories listed above - if you've added your own custom tax or spending item, it's left untouched, so totals may not exactly match the figures above.
