The coming new year will be "challenging and fraught with financial problems, but the elected officials seem optimistic about the future.
State Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles is “more optimistic in our achieving full economic recovery in 2012-2013.
“Encouraging signs include Boeing’s announcement to build the new 737 MAX here, Southwest Airlines’ placing the largest-ever Boeing order and the decline in November’s unemployment rate,” she said.
“Also, while inconsistent and chaotic, the Occupy movement is giving voice to the ‘99 percent’ in articulating the need to change our growing income inequality,” she continued. “And I’m more hopeful the Legislature will pass a fair and balanced budget, instead of continuing to make drastic cuts in education and essential services, and that voters will approve new revenue and closing of some ineffective tax breaks.
“I enthusiastically anticipate a year from now fewer people will say, “I don’t envy you your job…,” she said.
A new energy
Recently reelected to her third term on the Seattle City Council is Jean Godden, who chaired the Budget Committee and who says she has never been “more energized and excited about 2012 and the years ahead.”
“We are about to regain a priceless waterfront, an amazing 9-acre park and an incomparable people place,” she said. “The redesign is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and one that I want to make sure we do right. We have the finest setting of any city in the world, a working harbor that is a clean — though we need to make it even cleaner — and productive scenic attraction.”
Godden said she is “excited that we live in a city of broad and eclectic interests — a lively mix of people who have grown up here and others (like myself) who came here, recognizing that Seattle is special, like no other place in the world.
“In the coming year, I am sure that we will expand on some of our dreams — the idea of Seattle as a city of music, a city of historic theaters, a city that preserves its history, including (but not limited to) an iconic newspaper sign (the P-I Globe), a city that celebrates its recent past, Seattle Center (“the Next 50”), recognizing the energy that created the 1962 World’s Fair,” she stated.
“No doubt that we will face challenges this coming year,” Godden wrote in an e-mail. “The state and the federal government have partnered with us on social services and may no longer be capable of shouldering their full share of services. We will have to meet those challenges.
“Let’s hope it isn’t like the famous curse: ‘May you live in interesting times,’” she said.
City Councilmember Nick Licata said voters in the city will be again asked “to help determine the future of Seattle’s waterfront as we either have a vote on the seawall or prepare for one in the near future.
“That increased attention will ignite a broader discussion of what kind of Seattle are we becoming. As we evolve into even more of an international destination for visitors, how do we retain the quaint elements of this city that many of us have come to cherish as something different from being world-class?”
Recently reelected City Councilmember Sally Clark said she is “looking forward to a relatively calmer term as City Council president. Wait, that’s not right.
“Through the 2012 presidential campaign, we’ll all be engaged in a national dialogue about education, climate change, urban policy and renewable energy — the candidates leading the way with sharp, informed, reasoned debate. Wait, that’s not right,” she stated.
“In 2012, Seattle will face another hard budget year, take steps toward a new, well-designed, staged and affordable seawall and waterfront, and embrace necessary changes in police policies, supervision and training. Yes, that’s right,” she concluded.
Budget constraints
Metropolitan King County Councilmember Larry Phillips said he is “looking forward to seeing what 2012 brings for the people of King County.
“As a region, state and nation, we’ve been challenged for several years by the worst recession in many of our lifetimes. But challenges can test our mettle and yield opportunities. At the regional level, we will see in 2012 if we can build on the recent good news we’ve gotten from The Boeing Co. Will this news, along with the current uptick in employment, instill the confidence we need to start robustly growing our economy again?” he asked.
“At King County, budget constraints will continue to challenge our ability to provide basic services like public safety, public health, human services and transit. People came together in support of temporary funding to sustain our transit service, and we will see if we can build on that success with long-term, stable transit funding,” he said.
“At the state and federal levels, we will see an explosive political year. Record campaign spending will drive high-stakes contests to determine our statewide and national direction for the next four years,” he added.
King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson also thinks things look good at the county level “after four years of painful budget cuts.
“We recently adopted a balanced budget for next year that includes no major cuts to services, preserves public transit, invests in gang prevention and provides $1 million in critical funding for food, shelter and safety.
Our efforts to reform county government are paying off, and in 2012, the council and [County] Executive Dow Constantine will continue our work to maintain critical county services in spite of the ongoing recession.”
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