How the Yes on Proposition 1A campaign won a massive victory to fund social housing in Seattle with progressive revenue
Last week, voters in Washington State’s largest city voted by an overwhelming margin to embrace a proposal to fund Seattle’s new Social Housing Developer with an excess compensation tax, leaving many in Seattle City Hall and in C‑suites around the region astonished. As of King County Elections’ fourth tabulation on Friday, Proposition 1A (House Our Neighbors’ plan to levy new progressive revenue to build social housing) had 62.32% of the vote, while the alternative submitted by Mayor Bruce Harrell and the Seattle City Council at the behest of the Chamber and Amazon had only 37.68%.
It’s a striking result that to a significant extent mirrors last November’s statewide vote rejecting Brian Heywood’s I‑2109, which tried to repeal the capital gains tax on the wealthy passed by the Legislature and Governor Inslee several years ago. Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat discussed the dynamic in his weekend column, observing that amidst Trump and Musk’s efforts to dismantle essential public services, urban, suburban, and rural voters around these parts have been endorsing progressive taxation.
But it’s important for progressive strategists, activists and organizers everywhere to know that victory for 1A was not assured. This win was not inevitable, it was earned.
NPI’s preelection polling released last week indicated that with almost a week to go, there was a close divide between 1A and 1B among those who had made up their minds, with 33% saying they had or would vote for 1A, and 31% saying they had or would vote for 1B. Despite the narrow lead for 1A, some of the toplines suggested that voters might be starting to gravitate towards 1B, which prompted me to write:
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https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2025/02/how-the-yes-on-proposition-1a-campaign-won-a-massive-victory-to-fund-social-housing-in-seattle-with-progressive-revenue.html