(WSB photo: November 2017, South Seattle College)
When Mayor Jenny Durkan came to South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) on her second day in office last November, she signed an executive order to expand the free-college program that’s brought hundreds of students to SSC in recent years, but it wasn’t clear at the time where the money would come from. Now it is. Today she announced that funding her Seattle Promise plan – free community college at more campuses, for more students – would be part of a levy this fall that also will replace two expiring levies, the Families and Education Levy (passed in 2011) and the Seattle Preschool Program levy (passed in 2014). From the announcement:
Under Mayor Durkan’s plan, homeowners of a median assessed value property ($665,000 in 2019) would pay approximately $20.75 a month or $249 a year. For the first time, qualified low-income seniors, people with disabilities, and veterans with a service-connected disability will be eligible for an exemption.
So what exactly would that get you? Not just college – that’s actually only a fraction. More than half the money would go to the preschool program. Here’s the full plan (PDF). Page 9 in that report has this breakdown of what percentage of the levy money would go to which programs:
The mayor is proposing that the levy go to voters on the November ballot.
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