(The Center Square) – Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson says more schoolchildren will get taxpayer-funded public school meals, and parents will have more daycare options, part of a plan to make one of the most expensive cities in the U.S. more affordable.
But while Wilson’s administration helped finalize priorities for the new initiatives announced Tuesday, the general guidelines for those programs were actually set by the $1.3 billion Families, Education, Preschool and Promise levy approved by voters in 2025.
Wilson, who took office in January 2026, ran in part on a platform to make the city more affordable for families.
She said at a press conference on Tuesday that parents who might just miss the eligibility cutoff for taxpayer-funded school meals for their children will now not have to worry.
“That means a better start for kids, a better learning environment for teachers, and fewer groceries that families have to buy to keep their kids healthy,” Wilson said.
The mayor’s initiative also creates 600 slots for the six years of the levy, from 2026 to 2032, for an expanded day-care program for the children of working parents.
She said these new day cares will run for 10 hours a day, 12 months a year, to help parents.
“Right now, many programs end in the afternoon, earlier than many parents’ jobs, and many don’t offer care during the summer,” Wilson said.
Seattle City Councilwoman Maritza Rivera, who attended Tuesday’s event, said the City Council will still need to give final approval of the plan, but that there was general agreement on key elements.
Rivera chairs the council’s Libraries, Education, and Neighborhoods Committee, which is expected to approve the plan next month before forwarding it to the full city council for a vote.
Voters approved the 2025 tax levy by 80%, agreeing to more than $600 a year in additional property taxes per year from 2026 to 2032.
A Seattle homeowner with a median-value house of $872,000 pays more than $8,000 in combined city and county taxes each year.
