Budget Explorer · City of Seattle

Where the money comes from, and where it goes

Comparable revenue, spending, and debt for City of Seattle, on the same Census classification used for every city, county, and state in the Library — so the figures line up with peers rather than with the government's own budget book. Latest year: FY ending Dec 31, 2023. City of Seattle's own 2026 budget, in its own structure, follows below.

Audited actuals · Census classification · 749K residents

At a glance

Total revenue

$6.07B

$8,097 per resident

Total spending

$5.70B

$7,611 per resident

Spending per resident

$7,611

87th percentile of 71

Debt outstanding

$5.91B

$7,889 per resident · 84th percentile of 70

Own-source share

90%

91st percentile of 71

Capital share

18%

53rd percentile of 71

Where the money comes from

$6.07B total

Own-source revenue (taxes, charges, interest) versus aid from other governments. Utility and trust revenue are shown alongside general revenue but run on their own books.

Property tax$906M15%
General sales tax$400M7%
Selective sales taxes$529M9%
License & other taxes$648M11%
Federal aid$185M3%
State & local aid$277M5%
Charges & fees$1.19B20%
Interest, fines, other$471M8%
Utility revenue$1.46B24%

Own-source share of general revenue 90% · federal aid 4% · property tax is 36% of taxes

Where it goes

$5.70B total

Current operations plus capital outlay, grouped by Census function. Interest on debt and transfers to other governments are broken out so they are not hidden inside services.

Utilities (water, power, gas)$1.47B26%
Environment & housing$790M14%
Public safety$784M14%
General government$710M12%
Culture & recreation$583M10%
Transportation$556M10%
Interest on debt$238M4%
Transfers to other governments$220M4%
Public welfare$205M4%
Education$128M2%
Health & hospitals$23M0%

Show top functions with operating vs. capital ▸

Function	Category	Operating	Capital	Total
Electric utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$894M	$345M	$1.24B
Highways	Transportation	$294M	$246M	$540M
Parks & recreation	Culture & recreation	$346M	$134M	$480M
General (unallocable)	General government	$423M	$44M	$468M
Police protection	Public safety	$366M	$1.0M	$367M
Sewerage	Environment & housing	$156M	$171M	$327M
Fire protection	Public safety	$306M	$83K	$306M
Housing & community development	Environment & housing	$262M	$1.9M	$264M
Water utility	Utilities (water, power, gas)	$149M	$78M	$227M
Public welfare	Public welfare	$205M	—	$205M
Solid waste management	Environment & housing	$177M	$5.6M	$182M
K-12 education	Education	$128M	$129K	$128M
Central staff services	General government	$122M	—	$122M
Protective inspection & regulation	Public safety	$111M	—	$111M

Trend · 3 fiscal years

Nominal dollars. The Census Bureau cautions that single-government series are edited only for aggregates — read direction, not decimals.

Revenue

+16% over 2 yrs

$5.25B → $6.07B

Spending

+25% over 2 yrs

$4.57B → $5.70B

Debt outstanding

+5% over 2 yrs

$5.62B → $5.91B

How it compares · 71 cities and counties in the Library

Percentile within the cohort on each place's latest Census year. Higher is not better — the last column says what a high reading means so you can decide whether it matters here.

Measure	City of Seattle	Cohort median	Percentile	Higher means
Spending per resident	$7,611	$3,741	87th	more spent per resident
Revenue per resident	$8,097	$3,548	88th	more raised per resident
Taxes per resident	$3,314	$1,328	89th	heavier own-tax load
Debt per resident	$7,889	$3,865	84th	more borrowed per resident
Own-source share of revenue	90%	81%	91st	less dependent on aid
Federal aid share of revenue	4%	7%	29th	more exposed to federal cuts
Capital share of spending	18%	18%	53rd	more building, less operating
Interest share of spending	4%	4%	56th	more spend servicing debt
Debt ÷ annual revenue	0.97×	1.05×	44th	more leveraged

About this data

Census classification categories, not this government's own budget structure. Figures are audited actuals for the fiscal year shown, not the adopted budget.
The Census Bureau edits unit-level data only to produce state and national aggregates and advises against reading it as a precise time series for any single government; treat year-over-year moves under ~5% as noise.
Employee-retirement-system revenue is excluded (published separately by Census). Utility and insurance-trust revenue are shown separately from general revenue.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (Individual Unit public-use files), unit 532033184255 (Seattle City). Retrieved 2026-09-07. Classification manual.

Spot an error, or know a better source for this place's adopted budget? Suggest an edit on the assessment.

Approved budget · 2026

City of Seattle's own budget, in its own structure, from its open-data portal. This is the current year — more recent than the Census series above, but only comparable to this city's own history. Totals cover 43 departments.

$7.31B total

Seattle City Light$1.30B18%
Seattle Public Utilities$1.21B16%
Seattle Police Department$489M7%
Seattle Department of Human Resources$486M7%
Finance General$460M6%
Human Services Department$421M6%
Department of Finance and Administrative Services$399M5%
Office of Housing$352M5%
Seattle Fire Department$351M5%
Seattle Department of Transportation$326M4%
Seattle Information Technology Department$286M4%
Seattle Parks and Recreation$273M4%
All other (31)$969M13%

Operating budget only; Seattle publishes the capital budget separately.
Categories are the city's labor / non-labor split, the only expense classification in this dataset.
Source: City of Seattle Operating Budget (socrata open data), retrieved 2026-09-07 · Public Domain. Re-run this query.

Looking for how this fits City of Seattle's capacity to deliver? The fiscal dimension, binding constraint, and pathways live in the City of Seattle capacity assessment.