Voting on new Seattle City Council budget set to begin later this week

Voting on the new Seattle City Council budget is set to begin later this week. Council members were supposed to get amendments by the end of this morning. And Fox 13's Sean Chitnis live at City Hall with the latest back and forth between council members and the mayor on this. Sean, good morning. Bill, good morning. That back and forth going into the previous week and then also a lot of public comment coming in on various issues related to the budget. We were expecting there to be a briefing today, but that is one of many that have been canceled this month as we get closer to that vote that is expected later this week. Now, we did look over some of the public comment sessions where multiple people expressed concerns about. How renters can afford the cost of housing and also helping the homeless in this new budget. Earlier last week, Council Member Dan Strauss, who is the chair of the Council's Budget Committee, also released a proposal that includes $5 million for fighting gender-based violence. It also calls for more than $350 million for housing, $7 million to go to safe routes for schools. Strauss's plan also calls for reversing cuts to the fire department outlined by Mayor Katie Wilson. She has said budget restraints are necessary and her proposed budget included cutting around seven million dollars in overtime pay for Seattle fire. But some council members immediately said that funding is non-negotiable. The fire chief also said those funding cuts would require layoffs and affect service as well as response times. So Strauss's plan does keep that more than $7 million in funding for the 2027 budget, as well as the following year to cover that overtime pay for the fire department. And again, the Budget Committee set to move forward with what we expect to be the first vote on this new budget at the end of the week. Live in Seattle, Sean Chitnis, FOX 13 News.