How will you approach budget shortfalls, and how will you ensure that budgets are not balanced on the backs of the working people who have borne the brunt of the health and economic crises?

When it comes to budget gaps, I don’t believe we should cut services that working families depend on. Bellevue doesn’t have a money problem, we have a fairness problem.

I want to grow the city’s budget in ways that don’t hurt working people. I believe we should tax luxury and extreme wealth. This includes higher taxes on properties worth more than 5 million dollars, luxury items like Ferraris and yachts, vacant homes that are being held for profit instead of being used for housing, waterfront properties, and private docks. This doesn’t impact the working person at all. And we use those extra funds to improve the lives of real people here.

My focus is on housing, transit, and public investment. For housing, I want to build affordable options like supportive housing and housing that the city owns and sells below market rate. For transit, I want to give free transit passes to working people and encourage businesses to offer free passes to their employees. For utilities, I want public power microgrids so we don’t have to depend on private companies, and municipal broadband to provide affordable internet options.

These are real solutions to make Bellevue work for everyone, not just the wealthy few.