ELECTION RESULTS: Here’s what Seattle voters did about school levies, ‘social housing’ measures

(WSB photo – Morgan Junction dropbox earlier tonight)

The voting is over and the first round of vote-counting is done.

First, the Seattle social-housing measure. So far “yes, fund it” is leading in a big way in the first part of this city measure, and in the second part, 1A – fund it with a new tax on companies with a certain salary size – is beating 1B, fund it by diverting part of an existing tax.

Proposition Nos. 1A and 1B – Seattle social-housing funding
Yes 64,220 68.32%
No 29,779 31.68%

Proposition 1A – 50,002 – 57.55%
Proposition 1B – 36,876 – 42.45%

Next, the Seattle Public Schools levies, both winning approval:

Proposition 1 – Educational Programs and Operations levy
Yes – 71,996 – 77.71%
No – 20,648 – 22.29%

Proposition 2 – BEX VI capital levy
Yes – 66,656 – 71.91%
No – 26,032 – 28.09%

All of those results reflect 19 percent of ballots; so far, King County Elections reports receiving 26 percent of Seattle voters’ ballots. Next results will be out Wednesday afternoon.

78 Replies to "ELECTION RESULTS: Here's what Seattle voters did about school levies, 'social housing' measures"

  • Derek February 11, 2025 (8:26 pm)

    Looking good! It’s good to see progressivism making a big comeback with the last two elections. I really hope Sara Nelson’s days are numbered now.

    • CarDriver February 12, 2025 (6:10 am)

      Actually, will work out for all people on fixed income. When they’re priced out they’ll have the subsidized housing to move into.

  • onion February 11, 2025 (8:41 pm)

    Figures. I’ve always voted in favor of Seattle school and housing measures, but one of these days we also need to vote for accountability.

    • Derek February 11, 2025 (9:25 pm)

      Republicans and conservatives LOVE espousing “accountability” yet never take any for their failures either. When are we going to get accountability on sweeping not working? How about accountability for increasing SPD’s budget to the highest ever and seeing exactly zero shift in crime or enforcement? Where’s the accountability for Sara Nelson and council swiping affordable housing funds? Maybe we wouldn’t need so many new tax revenues if we cared more about how bad the conservative council is at budgeting. 

      • Lp February 11, 2025 (10:23 pm)

        👍

      • Bradley February 11, 2025 (10:46 pm)

        Derek remind me who was the majority council the 10 years before and how great that was. 

      • Kirrin February 12, 2025 (1:01 am)

        Preach 🔥

      • OptimusG February 12, 2025 (7:15 am)

        “Conservative council” … That’s hysterical. Thanks, I needed a laugh this morning. 

      • Banana February 12, 2025 (5:08 pm)

        Heyo! 

    • Pinto February 12, 2025 (8:03 am)

      Speaking of accountability, we should be holding the big employers like Amazon Microsoft and Google accountable for paying their fair share of taxes to fund education. Currently, Washington state sits at the bottom of the list of states in terms of taxable business 

      • Fair share? February 12, 2025 (1:14 pm)

        Currently, Washington state sits at the bottom of the list of states in terms of taxable business

        Isn’t that’s why these businesses are here?

      • Dr Wu February 12, 2025 (7:21 pm)

        With luck, we can tax our way into prosperity. 

    • Tired of dishonesty February 15, 2025 (7:17 pm)

      I’ve taught in Seattle Schools for nearly 40 years, and up until two years ago, I supported the school levies… However, people need to demand accountability for the spending. I’ve seen the dishonesty, and I simply shake my head, wondering when the district will get the wake up call that is LONG overdue. 

  • M February 11, 2025 (8:52 pm)

    Nice!

    • Arash Sarraf February 12, 2025 (2:29 am)

      take accountability for chasing off police with the defund threat. we lost 400 officers and you expect crime to go down?  I knew crime was going to go up after that  non-sense.

      • kdelridge February 12, 2025 (11:20 am)

        We lost 400 police who couldn’t handle criticism and accountability for over use of force. No loss.

      • M February 12, 2025 (9:44 pm)

        Sir, this is a thread about school and housing levies.

  • natinstl February 11, 2025 (9:27 pm)

    People love to tax themselves out of existence here.

    • Yep! February 11, 2025 (11:03 pm)

      You said it. This is ridiculous. I can’t believe we’re paying for schools and homelessness response. Who’s even complaining about that in Seattle?

    • SunriseHeights February 12, 2025 (6:10 am)

      You don’t pay income tax like people do in most states. But you probably still want the things income taxes pay for in those states.

      • natinstl February 12, 2025 (9:18 am)

        when every initiative has to be funded by increasing taxes or adding some fee here and there I’d be more in favor of a state income tax, at this point with all the taxes, sales tax, etc.. etc.. I’ll end up paying more. 

        • Pay as you go February 12, 2025 (1:16 pm)

          You are too naive. You’ll end up paying income tax with all these other fees and levies. The government never reduces taxes voluntarily. They always want more 

    • Nah February 12, 2025 (10:13 am)

      The new tax is only on people who make over a million dollars per year, they can afford it, and are definitely not going to ‘tax themselves out of existence’.

      • Sick and tired February 12, 2025 (12:04 pm)

        But why should you get to decide what they can afford?

        • Cwit February 12, 2025 (7:28 pm)

          Simple – because it was put up for a vote.

  • DC February 11, 2025 (9:27 pm)

    Yay 1A!!! People really hate anything this conservative council  endorses and are starting to see through their lies. Its time for the progressive backlash :)

    • Darren February 12, 2025 (12:35 am)

      Conservative council?

    • Nemo February 13, 2025 (9:57 pm)

      The ’27 elections (featuring ranked choice voting!) can’t come soon enough…

      • WSB February 13, 2025 (10:52 pm)

        Just a reminder for anyone who forgot, ranked choice was approved by Seattle voters for Seattle city elections. So theoretically it would have applied to the social-housing measure, but it wouldn’t have applied to the Seattle Public Schools levies. – TR

  • citizen February 11, 2025 (9:39 pm)

    I generally hold progressive views, but it’s difficult for me to understand why someone would think that government could provide housing more affordably than the private sector. Shouldn’t we expect delays and overruns? And what’s the point in providing a handful of middle income homes when we need thousands? Wouldn’t further permitting and zoning reform make more sense to increase supply? Or use the revenue from a new payroll tax to lower property taxes on homes under $600,000, or something like that? Can someone explain why the government building houses makes sense?

    • Lp February 11, 2025 (10:26 pm)

      Because the “private sector” won’t/doesn’t do it!

      • Dave February 11, 2025 (10:38 pm)

        Because state law makes condos unaffordable to build therefore preventing people from buying 1-2 bedrooms that would be more affordable than all the townhouses we see popping up. With more condos, individuals and couples could move out of apartments and build equity.

        • Construction Girl February 13, 2025 (3:47 pm)

          State laws are not making condos unaffordable to build.  The market is making them expensive to build and valuable to sell to people who can afford to pay the higher prices.  Labor, materials, and land are all very expensive here, and it’s not the laws that make it so.  

    • DC February 11, 2025 (10:36 pm)

      There is absolutely nothing stopping you from supporting both!!! We can have social housing AND support rezoning/permitting to allow for more and cheaper market rate housing. YIMBY is an all the above approach to housing.

    • DB February 11, 2025 (10:41 pm)

      A private developer, even if required to provide some affordable units, will always aim to maximize profit. The government will produce housing and may not even need to make a return on investment. The government won’t really build the housing either,  they’ll hire a contractor to do it, but likely the contractor who bids the lowest. So, the government may very well be able to produce it cheaper, but more importantly, the government doesn’t have to jack up prices to make ends meet. They can also build more housing where it’s needed and more types of needed housing. Developers don’t like to make family sized apartment units for example, 3 bedrooms are pretty rare in multi-family buildings, a government developer doesn’t need an incentive to provide family sized apartment units. 

    • Santiagou February 11, 2025 (10:46 pm)

      I agree zoning is the biggest issue. We need to press to allow for more density. Regardless of how the funds are getting to developers, we need the right zoning to support growth. 

      • Sick and tired February 12, 2025 (7:50 am)

        The increased density zoning proposal is ruining what makes West Seattle great. 

        • West Seattle Mom February 12, 2025 (11:50 am)

          So you think we should make West Seattle Great Again?

          • Sick and tired February 12, 2025 (4:50 pm)

            I’m saying that zoning changes being put forward to increase density will make it worse. We’ve already seen it with the DADUs that have been built in areas with single family homes. Sigh. Things in this city continue to decline.

        • AK February 13, 2025 (10:23 am)

          Agreed. 

        • Bbron February 13, 2025 (11:23 am)

          Explain how this is. Do you dislike there being more people around?

          • Sick and tired February 15, 2025 (9:20 pm)

            Bbron – I dislike the space in my neighborhood being less pleasant to live in. The density with DADUs removes green space, takes up parking and causes for overcrowded streets, etc. I’m not insane – my neighbors have noticed it too. 

    • Bbron February 12, 2025 (3:42 am)

      The simple answer is that private sector is for profit meaning there is always some amount of wealth extraction occuring. best case is that the private entity is local and the wealth stays within the community (albeit potentially distributed unequally); typical case is that it leaves the community. public sector is better set to do more with less; however, oversight is critical, and a push for consistent work is needed for necessary efficiencies.

  • Sick and tired February 11, 2025 (9:40 pm)

    I sincerely am shocked that 1A could pass. Better move to the Eastside where there’s a bit more common sense.

    • Bbron February 12, 2025 (3:43 am)

      You hire a lot of employees making $1 million annually?

    • k February 12, 2025 (9:00 am)

      I always love this logic.  “I don’t like a tax that passed here, so I’m going to move to a suburb where the average tax bill is 40% higher.  That will show them!”

      • kdelridge February 12, 2025 (10:47 am)

        Not to mention the massive cost of relocating such large businesses over what is a relative small expense for them.  We’re talking about 50k for each 1000k they pay people who make 1000k or more. The bill is minimal in the grand scheme of millions or billions in profit. On top of that I’ve yet to meet some one who makes seven figures and believed they actually deserve it. I don’t have any sympathy for corporations complaining about this.

        • Sick and tired February 15, 2025 (9:22 pm)

          I think your mistake is thinking that you could be in a position to understand whether someone earning seven figures is worth it.By definition in a capitalist society, they are worth it. Supply and demand.

  • Htb February 11, 2025 (10:02 pm)

    This is so depressing as a longtime Seattle resident.We are doubling down on why Trump won. On why good, decent, middle class Americans hate progressives.Taxing corporations will only make them move to Bellevue — you are not achieving anything by penalizing them.i can only dread the coming conservative revolution and the evolution of Seattle into an urban hellscape while the suburbs thrive.

    • Derek February 11, 2025 (10:09 pm)

      Doubling down on why Trump won by….overwhelmingly successful election results? Make it make sense. 

    • Ted February 11, 2025 (10:11 pm)

      You nailed it.

    • Jim Doggett February 11, 2025 (10:26 pm)

      If battling the, as you call it, the conservative revolution, (I describe it as the Politics of Stupidity) comes at the expense of abandoning our core progressive principles, what’s the point?That’s merely acquiescence. We would in effect become the standard bearers of the revolution you seem to fear and oppose.And as a footnote, over half of government spending supports businesses directly. And in WA due to our reliance on regressive forms of taxation, it’s not businesses nor the wealthy that pay the highest percentage of their incomes in state taxes; it’s low income Washingtonians that pay the highest percentage. Food for thought.

      • kdelridge February 11, 2025 (11:32 pm)

        People seem really upset that businesses are going to have to pay a tax on compensation at 1,000,000$ or higher. It seems to me if a business can pay some one $1mil+ they can help address the homelessness problem in our city with out hurting the bottom line much.Especially when the conditions created by the progressive/liberal politics of Seattle were the conditions in which those businesses were able to be established and flourished. What are we upset about again?

        • natinstl February 12, 2025 (9:21 am)

          I would argue that most of the successful businesses were not built on the conditions we see today. If that were the case most businesses probably wouldn’t have decided to setup shop here. 

          • kdelridge February 12, 2025 (10:28 am)

             I would argue the current conditions you’re pointing at are caused by the huge wealth disparity we see in the city today which were caused by those businesses focusing on their share holders rather than the communities they prospered in. There is no economic mechanism to encourage large corporations doing anything other than take from municipalities. 

    • Jort February 11, 2025 (10:36 pm)

      Wait, help me understand how much Trump won by here in Seattle? If I remember right, Trump did not win Seattle, nor the state of Washington! And it was, um, pretty decisive! So …. help me understand. Are you saying people in Pennsylvania voted for Trump because of … taxes in Seattle? Please. Help me understand. Are the people in Michigan looking at the results of our ballot initiatives here, and then becoming so incensed they have to vote for Donald Trump? I’m confused. Really. I am. 

      • DC February 12, 2025 (10:04 am)

        Exactly this. Seattle is a GROWING progressive city and the state is a growing left-leaning state. If you want to live somewhere with a conservative backlash where Trump won and most people hate progressives, you’re going to have to move. 

    • Bbron February 12, 2025 (3:48 am)

      Suburbs have always and will always be subsidized by metro cores. they will always be too inefficient to “thrive”.

    • Sick and tired February 12, 2025 (7:51 am)

      This! 

  • Jort February 11, 2025 (10:33 pm)

    Sounds like Rob Saka and his haughty buddies on the council might want to look at how elections are going in Seattle, these days, and consider whether they want to continue to revolve their entire legislative agenda – acting exactly like Donald Trump – about “undoing” everything that happened in an earlier council. Maybe we could see fewer snotty scoldings to the public from the council chambers, arrogantly telling everybody how wrong they are. Or, you know, they can keep acting like Seattle is somehow actually not that liberal and see how far that gets them. Good luck, Rob. I’m sure he’s got it all figured out. How sweet it would be in just a few short years’ time if I can join other jubilant, celebrating District 1 residents in watching Rob Saka – former corporate lawyer for Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta – lose the next election in an absolute, historic blowout. 

    • Derek February 12, 2025 (6:50 am)

      Saka and his blatant corruption with the curb is grounds for a recall and it’s absurd it’s not. Like you I want Saka FAR away from council, but I would also like to see Andrew Lewis run and defeat Harrell. He made a great point on “X” that this current council has not had a single initiative passed while the last one has. The previous council had more popular ideas. That’s the bottom line despite the loud minority of social media commenters.

  • Bradley February 11, 2025 (10:48 pm)

    SPS has been a hot mess the past 10-15 years. So why shouldn’t we give them a pass, bail them out and say “All’s Forgiven?” /s

    • Sunrise Heights February 12, 2025 (6:48 am)

      I voted for funding education. Underfunded schools hurts the students attending them. I can understand dissatisfaction with district leadership. The last 10 years have been particularly challenging, but those currently leading the district are not necessarily even the same people as those making decisions in 2010, 2015, 2020. We absolutely should engage with district leadership and vote as we find them when they are up for re-election, but starving the schools of resources will not solve any problem of their or others’ creations. 

    • k February 12, 2025 (7:24 am)

      These are renewing existing levies, not providing a bailout.  It’s not a new tax, just saying we’re not going to end existing revenues, if that makes sense.  Like it or not, kids deserve to learn in buildings without lead or asbestos, where paint is still stuck to the walls and not peeling.  Every time the President changes the name of some mountain or body of water on a whim, that means new updated textbooks have to be purchased, and all of those things cost money.

  • Latchkey February 12, 2025 (8:52 am)

    Proponents of 1a believe this is sticking it to the rich, but in reality it perpetuates trickle down economics. The bill makes us dependent on the rich. We should be asking “why are there working families who can’t afford housing in one of the richest cities in the richest nation in the world?”. If we focus on increasing the wealth of these families it better distributes the wealth and taxes while having the same effect on the wealthy. We do need some safety net for people, but this should not be the answer for a majority of families and should not be where we focus the majority of our tax dollars.

    • Scarlett February 12, 2025 (11:32 am)

      Correct.  We need to focus on pre-tax economic remedies to bolster the lower income households, not rely on the “State” to provide for all our needs.  DeToqueville wrote eloquently about this in “Democracy in America,” still the best book on America ever written in my opinion.    I’m going to pick on conservatives here when I say that you are going to have to put aside your petty gripes about unions, for example, as they have lifted millions out of poverty and off government rolls. 

    • SoLongDelridge February 12, 2025 (1:46 pm)

      That is why we need dense housing and a radical shift in the design of the city.

      Those families build wealth when it cycles through the community, not to big corporations. We are so worried about the corporations leaving that we don’t think about what we could have instead. Meanwhile we keep sending the corporations our money, so they gain power and we are held hostage despite the problems created.

      We know what to do, we just don’t have the will to do it. It will be a long road.

    • CAM February 12, 2025 (8:28 pm)

      I’m not speaking for all progressives but my decisions are not made based on a need for vengeance or comeuppance to 1% of the population. I make my decisions based on what the larger portion of the population needs and how best to get their needs met. The “rich” don’t enter my thinking at all. 

  • Admiral-2009 February 12, 2025 (9:34 am)

    Htp – has a valid view point.  Seattle is a very liberal bubble that is out of touch with middle America.  Far left liberalism does not win national elections, and now we have a very scary situation nationally with Trump and his cronies in charge.  

    • Jort February 12, 2025 (10:25 am)

      Are you suggesting that Donald Trump won because of how Seattle voters choose to tax themselves? Help this make sense to me. Is Seattle in “middle America?” Do you think people in Michigan voted for Joe Biden because of the way that the Rexburg, Idaho city council taxes its citizens? Come on. Help this make sense for me. 

  • Scarlett February 12, 2025 (10:30 am)

    Politics is like herding sheep into pens.  Bleh.  

  • Joe Z February 12, 2025 (2:46 pm)

    I almost forgot to vote until a couple of corporate-funded flyers showed up with Bruce’s face on them. If the goal was to get me to vote for 1A, they succeeded. 

  • SC February 13, 2025 (1:38 am)

     I voted for the $2+ billion school operations budget, but passed on the $3+ billion construction budget this time, because those numbers seem backwards to me.When I was a grade school kid in the late 50s, the schools (in Highline) were too small and seriously crowded. I don’t remember exactly, but I’d guess we had about 45 students per class. So the district resorted to a split schedule. There were 9 O’clockers and 10 O’clockers, who would come to school at different times and leave at different times, so that the teachers  could have an hour alone with each cohort of 20+ kids, to make sure that each student understood the day’s lessons in arithmetic, reading, spelling, writing and so on. So in a crowded low-spec building with a scrubby playfield of dirt, weeds and sand, we got a reasonably good education. But now it seems that while SSD tolerates many very poor educational outcomes, it wants to further prioritize spending magnificent sums on buildings as its first fiscal priority.NOT hiring the best teachers in the country, which is going to cost money. NOT getting rid of all the bad principals whom it has been shuffling from school to school for years instead of outright firing them as any honest and responsible school district administration would do, and in their place hiring the best administrators available anywhere in the US. That will cost us more, and be worth it, but it won’t be billions.So I’m afraid we will end up with a lot of really fine buildings, and yet still be burdened with unacceptably poor outcomes for a great many of the kids. Because the buildings are the easier part, and District leadership is packed with people who continually shirk the harder part.

  • Citizen Joe February 13, 2025 (10:53 am)

    Great to see fellow Seattle-ites unified in providing education to our children and keeping our fellow citizens in proper housing! 💯

  • Jay February 13, 2025 (11:30 am)

    The solution to the problem of expensive levies is an income tax. It would cost most people less money. I used to live in Virginia, income tax was relatively cheap when I was making $40k and the roads and infrastructure are immaculate. Road resurfacing literally takes place OVERNIGHT. Bridges are replaced in under a year. Even backcountry gravel fire roads are immaculate, to the point I had buddies who would come out to mountain bike or hike in lowered sports cars with their bike attached to the roof on suction cups. No potholes ANYWHERE. Levies and sales tax are inefficient, unpredictable, and regressive.

    • Citizen Joe February 13, 2025 (4:27 pm)

      🤔🤔🤔

    • Mel February 13, 2025 (8:45 pm)

      This state has had an incredible amount of money that past several years and they’ve spent it all. I’m not saying I’m against an income tax, but having an income tax doesn’t solve the lack of accountability in government spending nor how long it takes to get anything accomplished. We have a problem with leaders in this state staying within budgets.

    • Pay as you go February 14, 2025 (7:47 pm)

      Money is money, whether you get it from income tax or other sources. Sounds to me like the difference is that Virginia had better functioning government than Washington 

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