After one month on the job, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson will give her first State of the City address.
In that first month, her headlines have included executive orders to address a potential increase in federal immigration enforcement, two teenagers shot and killed near a school in Rainier Beach, her pausing the sweep of an encampment in Ballard, and thousands of layoffs at local tech employers.
Since the start of 2025, before Wilson took office, Amazon has laid off 3,633 at its various corporate offices and Amazon Fresh stores in Seattle.
Another 3,948 layoffs have been posted to the Washington State Employment Security Department in that time.
Wilson says she is “absolutely worried” about the job market.
“I think it definitely speaks to a need to think hard about what does a really healthy, diversified economy look like for a region and what we do to move in that direction?” she said.
Wilson sees supporting a healthy small business climate and attracting Green Energy employers are places to start.
Business groups have hoped for a “Do No Harm” approach to policy amid a “fragile” economy.
Seattle has implemented a “jump start” tax as well as a social housing tax paid by companies for their employees who make over a million dollars.
“We have a lot of pressures we have to balance,” Wilson said, “The state and the city are facing really large budget deficits. I am supportive of looking for new progressive revenue. And I understand how important it is that we have a good climate for doing business in Seattle.”
Wilson says while the business community does care about taxes, they tell her their biggest concern is homelessness and public safety.
In January, Wilson paused the clearing of an encampment where people who are experiencing homelessness live. It was cleared last week, to a debatable amount of success.
In the time since, Wilson says they connected five people to shelter and housing, and a woman who was five months sober into a tiny house village.
“The bottom line is there just enough appropriate places for people to go,” Wilson said.
She points out that there are half the number of shelter beds as people who are homeless and wants to add 1,000 beds to the shelter system, with job and mental health counseling. It comes as the city is looking at a budget deficit of more than $130 million in 2027.
“We have a large budget deficit. We are going to have to make some hard choices and really decide where our priorities lie, and I mean just honestly, with thousands of people on our street every night, this has to be at the top.”
Wilson hopes for an enhanced community response (CARE), crisis and mental health team to better handle calls and connect people with services. She does plan to continue her predecessor Bruce Harrell’s, progress in hiring hundreds of police officers to Seattle Police
“We’re going to be working with our police department to figure out how we can achieve more of that consistent presence at the same time as we’re continuing to staff up,” Wilson said.
The cornerstone to her campaign was making housing more affordable and available. She passed Harrell’s plan that represented the second phase of a four phase process. She tells Seattleites to expect more density in more places with her plan by adding density zoning to areas around transit stops, not just the immediate blocks nearby, and create nine new neighborhood centers that allow for more development.
“First of all, we have to make sure that our city services are keeping pace with that density, Wilson said, “The more that we improve our transit system the more we will be able to add that density.”
“People are going to continue. Moving into our region right we can’t stop that we don’t want to stop that and so we have to build the housing to accommodate them,” she continued.
You can stream Mayor Wilson’s address live on KIRO 7 at 11:50 a.m. PT.
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