Post navigation

Prev: (06/11/18) | Next: (06/12/18)

Good news, Amazon, Seattle won’t be taxing you after all — UPDATE: Repealed


UPDATE 2:10 PM: In a vote interrupted by a chanting crowd and District 3 representative Kshama Sawant’s refusal to voice her yay or nay despite threats from President Bruce Harrell that he would close council chambers if outbursts continued, the Seattle City Council voted 7-2 Tuesday to repeal the city’s yet-to-be-implemented, unanimously-passed head tax on Seattle’s largest businesses.

As she seemingly goaded on her supporters in the council chambers, Sawant paused and let the chants swell before finally casting her vote against the repeal.

Earlier, with a sigh, council member Lisa Herbold, a co-sponsor of the head tax bill, said before her vote to repeal the measure, “This is not a winnable battle.” The opposition, she said, has “unlimited resources.”

Mike O’Brien said the employee hour tax makes the most sense for the revenue Seattle needs but he was forced to vote to repeal the tax because he could not “see a path.”

Another council member who flipped from her previous support for the head tax, Lorena González said “nobody wants to talk about how we pay” for homelessness solutions. Like O’Brien, she said she still believes the employee hours tax is a viable policy for Seattle. “It gives me no pleasure to have to replace this law because this law was well done.”

“It is a defining moment in the city of Seattle,” Gonzalez said, “and it is not a good one.”

Sawant focused her more than 20-minute-long pre-vote comments on the thousands of homeless and unsheltered in Seattle, national movements toward more progressive tax structures — and the Democratic party. “They have let it worsen with no real solutions,” the Socialist Alternative leader said. She also scolded her fellow council members for giving up on swaying the public opinion of “working people” like those who supported the “No Tax on Jobs” campaign. All it would take is a summer of activism and reaching out to the working class, Sawant said.

Mosqueda following Tuesday’s vote

The District 3 representative said “a tsunami of propaganda from big business” was driving Tuesday’s repeal vote. “This is a cowardly betrayal of the needs of working people.”

Teresa Mosqueda, who co-sponsored the head tax legislation with Herbold and joined Sawant in voting against the repeal Tuesday, called Amazon’s actions during the initial negotiations to shape the head tax a “hollow handshake” and repeated her call for a replacement plan before repealing the tax but said she was afraid that what will come next will be “more regressive tax structures.” “I don’t think this was about one corporation. I think this is about shared responsibility,” Mosqueda said.

“I’m absolutely ready to start on Plan B,” she said.

ORIGINAL REPORT: Tuesday at high noon, the Seattle City Council will begin a special meeting session to vote on a repeal of the newly passed tax on its largest businesses to help pay for homelessness services and affordable housing in one of the fastest growing, most expensive cities in the nation.

It’s a done deal.

Monday, seven of the nine council members along with Mayor Jenny Durkan signed onto an announcement of a proposed repeal of the tax approved only a month ago in council chambers.

“In recent months, we worked with a range of businesses, community groups, advocates, and working families to enact a bill that struck the right balance between meaningful progress on our affordability and homelessness crisis while protecting good, family-wage jobs,” the announcement reads.”Over the last few weeks, these conversations and much public dialogue has continued. It is clear that the ordinance will lead to a prolonged, expensive political fight over the next five months that will do nothing to tackle our urgent housing and homelessness crisis. These challenges can only be addressed together as a city, and as importantly, as a state and a region.”

The two in opposition to council president Bruce Harrell’s repeal legislation are District 3 Socialist firebrand Kshama Sawant and citywide representative Teresa Mosqueda.

Along with West Seattle’s Lisa Herbold, Mosqueda faced down public saber rattling from Amazon and architected the employee tax that passed in a compromise form in mid-May to implement a $275 per full-time employee tax on companies reporting $20 million or greater in annual “taxable gross receipts” beginning in 2019.

Monday, Mosqueda said she could not support any repeal that did not include a replacement plan. “While a vote may go forward to repeal the tax, our homelessness and housing affordability crisis gets worse,” Mosqueda said. “We have people who are dying on the doorsteps of prosperity, and our neighbors and friends worry about being able to afford to live in the city while we have a booming economy.”

Mosqueda says a “critical” next step is to “hear from those business leaders about how we can address our upside-down tax code while they continue to thrive in our city.”

Sawant, meanwhile called on supporters to pack City Hall and jam the phone lines in support of the “Amazon Tax.”

Though Mosqueda and Herbold’s offices carried the legislation forward and Sawant championed the cause as a sequel to her successful drive for a $15 per hour minimum wage in the city, the driver for creating the new tax grew out of recommendations from a Progressive Revenue Task Force convened to help Seattle find new sources of revenue and better combat its ongoing homelessness and affordability crisis. Contrary to pundits who contend the city lacked a plan for how it was going to spend the roughly $237 million in tax revenue in its five years before review, the legislative process included a companion resolution outlining how the money would be put to use.

While the creation and ultimate passage of the head tax was a crawling slog of Seattle politics with a dozen or so public meetings and hearings, Tuesday’s repeal vote will take place without even public comment. It comes as a group formed by funding from many of the city’s largest employers and business groups including the downtown chamber opposing the employee hour tax announced over the weekend it had collected more than the needed signatures required to put a repeal initiative on the ballot. UPDATE: The council will reportedly amend its rules Tuesday to allow public comment at a special meeting session.

Tuesday’s vote also comes as more eyes are turning to the calendar for the 2019 election that will see all seven of the council’s district seats — including Sawant’s D3 chair — up for grabs. Only Mosqueda and fellow citywide councilor Lorena González will stand above the reelection fray.

 

PLEASE HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE!
Subscribe to CHS to help us pay writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for as little as $5 a month.

 

 
Subscribe and support CHS Contributors -- $1/$5/$10 per month

56 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
RWK
RWK
5 years ago

I’m glad that the City Council is reversing itself on this legislation, but it only shows how dysfunctional the Council is. Why didn’t they assess “public opinion” BEFORE they passed the head tax?

Brian
Brian
5 years ago

1. Good, glad to see this get repealed. Suspect that after seeing the poll #’s, early counts from signature gathers, and hearing vocal dissatisfaction from their constituents, the Mayor and the council members decided to get ahead of this rather than see it go down in flames in November. An issue like this, passed the way it was, does nothing but alienate Seattleites and will have some serious down ballot ramifications. They should have never passed the tax in the first place but (small) kudos to them for being proactive.

2. Find it funny that Sawant somehow thinks that getting 50-100 people from her “movement” to show up will make any difference at all. Typical wedge issue politics that she seems more than happy to exploit.

3. Really not digging the switch to electing council members by districts rather by a citywide vote. We ended up with a mess similar to what we have in the US House of Reps where we get elected officials from districts that are too hyper local and partisan.

Simon Says
Simon Says
5 years ago
Reply to  Brian

“50-100 people from her “movement” to show up will make any difference at all”

Yup, all young, community-college educated pastry arts majors and underemployed white kids or the gray haired hippies still waiting for the Revolution, maaaan.

Socialism at work.

Well not at work, that would be an oxymoron.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
5 years ago
Reply to  Simon Says

Where is the “Like” button on here when you need it? You nailed it.

Ace
Ace
5 years ago

I love how brazen Sawant is about things the rest of the city council tries to cover up.

The other 8 members were out there promising “no really, it’s not a tax on Amazon, it’s on a bunch of other businesses too.” But Sawant was proudly marching on Amazon and calling it an “Amazon Tax.” Then Amazon opposed the tax… what a shock!

At least she makes it easy for us to know her true motivations.

Charlene
Charlene
5 years ago

The tax wasn’t a cure for homelessness. Look at some of the other articles. The city told the homeless “We will pay you to clean up your areas” Did they accept the offer? NO.
Repeal, now!

OG Seattleite
OG Seattleite
5 years ago

i dont know who all these anti-tax carpetbaggers are, but you can fuck right off.

Ace
Ace
5 years ago
Reply to  OG Seattleite

Hey that’s me!

Glenn
Glenn
5 years ago
Reply to  Ace

We are your neighbors, certainly more so than that socially maladjusted guy on the corner pissing on a local business. And thanks for the sentiment!

23 years in the CD
23 years in the CD
5 years ago
Reply to  OG Seattleite

@ OG Seattleite – I get your sentiment, but I think that people are primarily anti city council, not so much anti the actual tax. Many people don’t trust this council to solve basic stuff, let alone something incredible complicated. Many feel with these people in charge of the increased spending that they will only create more problem. Fair assessment or not, that’s how many, many people feel… and the city has been providing much fuel to this fire.

Ace
Ace
5 years ago

While I agree with much of what you said, I am also against the actual tax. Kshama made it clear that this was primarily the city simply taxing Amazon because Jeff Bezos is rich so he can afford it. Amazon stopped development and threatened to move jobs to a friendlier city, which would have a major negative impact on our local economy, and Kshama was basically like “do your worst you bastards! Chicken! I dare you to leave Seattle!”

Anyone remember what happened when Boeing left Seattle?

Not to mention the myriad other businesses who basically said “yeah we’re just going to set up shop outside Seattle city limits.” If you’re a low-margin business, you can’t afford an extra $500/employee/year. Kshama even introduced an amendment to double that number to $1000, so it’s not like you can even be confident it would stop at $500. The council doesn’t understand the negative economic impact of $500 so when they need more money, what’s going to stop them from saying “let’s just raise the head tax”?

Fairly Obvious
Fairly Obvious
5 years ago

Amazon stopped development and threatened to move jobs to a friendlier city, which would have a major negative impact on our local economy…

That was the biggest empty threat ever and everyone knew it. Amazon was not about the cancel hundreds of millions of dollars worth of construction and pay $200 million+ to break existing leases to avoid a $14 million/year tax.

Anyone remember what happened when Boeing left Seattle?

Boeing left? Last I checked, their HQ left for the more centrally located and much more expensive Chicago, but their factories are still up and running, with thousands still employed.

Not to mention the myriad other businesses who basically said “yeah we’re just going to set up shop outside Seattle city limits.”

You hear that all the time, most recently with the $15/hr minimum wage. Yeah, Seattle is still booming and businesses are moving here, despite surrounding cities doing everything to lure businesses.

If you’re a low-margin business, you can’t afford an extra $500/employee/year.</em

It was $275/employee/year, but don't let facts get in the way of your sensationalist post.

You post a lot of false claims and opposition to proposed solutions to the homeless problem, but you fail to post your solution.

fearofminihorses
5 years ago
Reply to  OG Seattleite

How about they tax the big businesses to fund education (presumably they depend on their staff being educated), and bring down our property taxes? Mine just went up AGAIN by another $120 per month so now I’m paying more than $600 per month in property tax for an outdated house with 1980’s kitchen and bath and rotting roof/deck/fence. Just trying desperately to hang on to my house while being taxed right out of it. Soon I’ll have to go live in an apartment in the sticks, miles and miles away, and I’ll rent out my house. Guess what? With the skyrocketing property tax I’ll have to rent out my house for a bundle, contributing to high rents in Seattle. Why must the property owners (mortgage owners) shoulder a burden that Amazon and other big businesses do not?

23 years in the CD
23 years in the CD
5 years ago

@fearofminihorses – I bet amzn et al would be far more open to a tax to pay for universal pre-school and community college. Would they sign up for it? Shrug, but it does align with their interest of an educated workforce and a benefit for employees (pre-school). It’s the approach that the city council probably should have taken but they seemed more interested punishing their perceived antagonists.

Universal pre-school and universal community college are not only good for business (well, depending on how its funded) but these programs also provide great leaps in social equity. But instead the council burnt all its political capital (if it had any left) on getting more spending to band aid the end result of countless failed policies and social ills… they want money to “solve” issues once they are the most difficult, expensive, and with poorest outcomes… after individuals and families have been destroyed.

Spending money on programs that work and are an investment in our society such as universal pre-school? The city council is nowhere, the mayors have championed this.

But again, much of this comes down to the level of spending and trust in government.

Spending – Seattle has a 2018 budget of $6B. In 2013 it was $4B. Was there any value in that additional $2B spending? Most would say no. Seattle also has the forth highest spending per capita of any city in the US only behind NYC, DC, and San Francisco. Are we getting value for money, no.

Trust… we don’t even need to go there.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
5 years ago
Reply to  OG Seattleite

I don’t know who these taxaholic spendthrifts are, but they sure aren’t the majority of taxpaying Seattleites. Why don’t you move to the Eastside and run jobs out of there?

Brian
Brian
5 years ago
Reply to  OG Seattleite

You could but that approach wouldn’t be very constructive or particularly useful, ONE.

Ace
Ace
5 years ago

Another thing that goes unmentioned: Just recently there was a meeting in SLU run by LIHI to hear community feedback about the tiny village they want to open.

Tiffany Washington was representing LIHI and answering questions. Community members asked whether drug addicts, sex offenders, and other criminals would be allowed in the camp. She refused to answer the questions, and then accused all the concerned community members of being blinded by their privilege and said that avoiding the homeless was a luxury.

The city’s approach to this issue hasn’t just been incompetent, it’s actively harmful to Seattle residents. For many of us, the calculation is that if, say, $50 = 5 homeless camps in our neighborhoods that the city wants to stock with drug addicts and sex offenders and then lie to us about, then $100 = 10 such camps. So by repealing this head tax, and preventing the city from giving more money to Tiffany and the rest of LIHI, maybe we’ve prevented the green space on 15th next to Safeway from being turned into a base for criminals and heroin addicts to terrorize that neighborhood and degrade 15th Ave commerce.

Fairly Obvious
Fairly Obvious
5 years ago
Reply to  Ace

Tiffany Washington was representing LIHI and answering questions. Community members asked whether drug addicts, sex offenders, and other criminals would be allowed in the camp. She refused to answer the questions, and then accused all the concerned community members of being blinded by their privilege and said that avoiding the homeless was a luxury.

So if you don’t want addicts, sex offenders and other criminals to live in the tiny homes, you must be OK with them living in nearby parks, open spaces and abandoned homes, right?

Sloopy
Sloopy
5 years ago

To be fair, this is how democracy works no? A law is passed, people organized and talked to their elected officials, and they reversed an unpopular decision.

Kshama could start an initiative drive to pass the head tax again if she’s so convinced it is a winner. But that would be more work than just grandstanding.

23 years in the CD
23 years in the CD
5 years ago

They didn’t reverse their decision because of pressure from amzn, sbux, uwajimaya, dick’s, etc…. they had that pressure well before they voted to enact this. They reversed their decision because every time a council member steeped out in public they would hounded by the citizenry of Seattle, because they reviewed the recent poll showing strong opposition to this tax and the city council itself, and because they were positive this would be voted down in the fall… and they would most likely be vote out of office next fall.

Also, with the current anger of the citizens they are crazy worried that the schools levy will get voted down this fall… and they need to do what ever it takes to get that passed. If the schools go way underfunded people will loose their minds and Seattle politics will be a total poop show far beyond what it is now.

Of topic, but I for one think they should untangle the one big education levy and have three. A traditional one for K-12, one for universal pre-school, and one for universal community college. I’m concerned that if they remain in one big bundle it will get voted down. I would think splitting them apart is the best shot. Let’s us decide. We were dumb enough to vote you guys in office, so I think we earned right to vote on whatever we want.

Glenn
Glenn
5 years ago

I thought the local school levies were supposed to get smaller once the state was forced to “fully fund” education. Why are Seattle’s only growing larger?

23 years in the CD
23 years in the CD
5 years ago
Reply to  Glenn

@Glenn – the new “education” levy is larger than the old ones because they added non K-12 spending that was not on the old schools levies. They bundled universal pre-school and universal community college into the traditional K-12 “schools” levy.

For the proposed levy only ~$180M of the $636M is K-12. Is this K-12 portion of the new proposed levy smaller than the past one (accounting for inflation), I did not specifically look.

See here for more https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-council-may-shift-millions-from-preschool-to-elementary-in-fall-ballot-measure/

Jonathan Mark
Jonathan Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  Glenn

This fall’s “Families and Education Levy” is separate from the school levies.

There will additionally be a special election on February 12, 2019, for a Seattle Schools operating levy and also a capital levy (BEX V). The school levy timeline is discussed here:
https://www.seattleschools.org/cms/one.aspx?pageId=36191053

The legislature has chosen the Republican solution to McCleary which means Seattle’s subsidy of the rural areas is increasing while corporate tax breaks are largely kept in place. Thus the big property tax increases plus we still have levies.

I wish the City’s Families and Education Levy could be on the February ballot also, rather than getting in line ahead of Seattle Schools.

23 years in the CD
23 years in the CD
5 years ago
Reply to  Glenn

Mark –
So what is the $164M K-12 + $66M “K-12 health” spending in “Families and Education Levy” for?

https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/seattle-council-may-shift-millions-from-preschool-to-elementary-in-fall-ballot-measure/

Jonathan Mark
Jonathan Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  Glenn

School based health clinics which are doing essential work in my opinion. These are considered “wraparound services” meaning that the City’s education levy funds social services targeted specifically toward K-12 students without being direct education spending.

Jonathan Mark
Jonathan Mark
5 years ago
Reply to  Glenn

P.S. I guess that was just the health part of your question. The non-health part of the Seattle education levy also covers things that are educational work like summer school, tutoring, professional development for teachers, etc.

fearofminihorses
5 years ago

I will be voting against it and anything else that raises my property taxes. One more raise and I will be taxed right out of my house. I’ve lived in the CD my whole life and I’ll have to go live in some crap apartment by the airport or something. If folks looked at what their property taxes break down to per month, it’s devastating. I just can’t do it anymore.

23 years in the CD
23 years in the CD
5 years ago

@fearofminihorses – Yeah, sorry. Must friggin suck to have your back against the wall.

The city council drones on about affordability then seemingly does everything it can to make this place more expensive and takes no accountability in its role in doing so. They even are talking about a new tree ordinance so that you may have to permit any tree that you want to cut down own your own property with the permit cost going from $330 up to $10K/per tree depending upon the tree. Hey, we all love trees but there is seemingly an assumption from the city if you own a home your are rich, simple as that.

Many home owners like yourself are going to be forced out by the city government, not amazon or the new dentist office around the corner.

Many against new taxes are so simply from a principle point of view, or because they are frustrated with the city, or whatever. But for many, such as yourself, opposition to taxes is a purely about survival.

Moving On
Moving On
5 years ago

45,000 signatures in a month suggests this about more than Amazon and the business community.

The Progressive Revenue Tax Force was a sham from the beginning – leading with the idea that revenue was the problem and the only thing that was needed was to figure out how to raise it. The name even says as much. Comprised only of members who would personally benefit from the revenue raised (and Ian Eisenberg, who managed to secure an exemption for himself and I love him for that).

Then there was the spending plan. Much of it didn’t even go toward homelessness and it in NO WAY tried to rationally solve the problem, instead randomly peanut buttering $50 mill across Council members pet causes. Many of which were deliberately targeted for disinvestment because they are ineffective or counterproductive.

Now Council members are trying to have it both ways. They want to vote for repeal because they know they are going to lose, all the while saying they hear us while simultaneously giving smug lectures about how they’re right all along. The statement from Lisa Herbold is breathtaking in its arrogance AND it’s hypocrisy. Just no.

And then there’s Sawant. This is not about your movement or Amazon. This is about the needs of our district and how to meet them. She started out with such a promising career. I loved the $15 minimum wage, because I think it’s a good common sense solution to a real problem. Now she’s all about ideology and party building. I will never vote for her again.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
5 years ago
Reply to  Moving On

She’s as big a blowhard as tRump is, she’s just on the other end of the political spectrum. But she’s just as full of crap.

Wade
Wade
5 years ago

600 business having to pay this tax (including many who have been in Seattle way before homeless numbers increased) is a bit more than just Amazon. I believe it was the 45,000 citizens who signed petitions calling for a repeal vote that caused this change in attitude at the council.

caphillguy
caphillguy
5 years ago

Fully support the repeal. Use the money you have correctly.

Fairly Obvious
Fairly Obvious
5 years ago
Reply to  caphillguy

They are. It’s not enough. Next suggestion?

Mrairbnb
Mrairbnb
5 years ago

All good, but the $8-$14 / night tax on Airbnb to fund affordable housing is stills tarting next year. But yeah, the retired guy renting out his basement to survive should PAY ?

Local
Local
5 years ago
Reply to  Mrairbnb

Hotel tax is 15.6% and every unit converted to short term means one less for long term residents. Sorry if the rules changed on you midstream, but this seems fair to me.

Mraitbnb
Mraitbnb
5 years ago
Reply to  Local

And ? Normal rental don’t pay hotel tax. The city is restricting STR via planning refs – max 2 units etc. it still doesn’t explain why I pay a tax to help affordable housing out of my limited $ but you and Amz say no way.

Fred Quarnstrom
Fred Quarnstrom
5 years ago

Fred Quarnstrom
JUNE 11, 2018 AT 10:32 PM
As long as I can remember Seattle has been a liberal caring city. That is partially why I live here. I live in SE Seattle because of SE’s racial make up. I wanted my children to grow up in a city that looked like the world. SE Seattle was White, Black, Asian, Hispanic and others with citizens who did not discriminate against the LGBY community. ‬‬‬‬‬

‪At last count Seattle was over 700,000 people and growing. We went from a one-pony (Boeing) town in 1970 to a vibrant city of many successful businesses. I remember when Boeing laid off 50,000 workers. Another 50,000 lost their jobs from subcontractors, restaurants, stores, service stations and hospitals, to mention a few. Someone placed a sign “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE–turn out the lights.” Most cities would be happy to have what we now have. In fact, many towns all over the US are bidding for our businesses. ‬‬‬

‪About the time unemployment went to record levels, in 1970 we had a group of bright young folks form CHECC, Choose and Effective City Council. From the late 1960’s early 1970’s, all nine member of the city council were replaced with CHECC’s new and bright candidates, Lamphere, Smith, Tuai, Cooley, Larkin, Hill, Williams, Miller, Chapman, and Ravelle, are the names I remember. They did not always agree, but what they did was good for the whole city and the City’s future. ‬‬‬

‪Our City Council is now an embarrassment for a city of our size or for that matter a city of any size. Have you heard the term decerebrate cat? This is an animal that has no connection to its brain but it limbs still twitch because of nerve stimulations. Our present council fills this definition to a “T.” There has not been any action taken by the city council in the last 10 years that could be categorized as well thought out much less brilliant. If this were the old west they would all be on crutches for having shot themselves in the foot. ‬‬‬

How much did it cost the citizens of the city for the council to vote 100%, every last one of them, for the head tax. Now suddenly they are going to vote it out. We they drinking when they took the first vote, did they all have a simultaneous stroke or seizure. Now all of a sudden they are all thinking again. Is it simply they all think they will loose the next election for being stupid.

‪ Seattle is confined by the Sound and lake Washington. Our people need to go North and South. This makes for difficult traffic patterns. ‬‬We have spent millions screwing up our streets. Like it or not Seattle needs cars and trucks. Yet close to 70% of our major arterials have given up two of their four lanes to bicycles. Bicycles are about 1% of the vehicles on our streets. we have given away half of our major streets to 1% of the population.‬

‪We have spent millions trying to house the folks in tents. A large percentage of the homeless do not want the offer. Yes they are poor, yes many have drug problems, yes many have mental health issues. However, nothing that has been done has helped the problem. The Council throws millions at the problem with no accountability of how the money is spent for no positive effect. This seems to be a pattern of the Council. Throw money at the problem, do not account for how it is spent and move on to the next issue. Do not consider what is best for the whole city. Do not govern the whole city. ‬‬‬

‪We need to form CHECC again. Never in recent history has the city seen a less functional City Council. The Council’s time is spent on any and all problems of minorities while ignoring the major issues facing the city. All minorities should be treated fairly and equally but we cannot let running the city become that of a decerebrate animal twitching to every stimulus without having a cognitive leadership making decisions necessary to govern a city such as ours.‬‬‬

Donewiththis
Donewiththis
5 years ago

Kshama Sawant the bully needs to go!!!!

Fred Quarnstrom
Fred Quarnstrom
5 years ago

Fred Quarnstrom

As long as I can remember Seattle has been a liberal caring city. That is partially why I live here. I live in SE Seattle because of SE’s racial make up. I wanted my children to grow up in a city that looked like the world.

‪At last count Seattle was over 700,000 people and growing. We went from a one-pony (Boeing) town in 1970 to a vibrant city of many successful businesses. I remember when Boeing laid off 50,000 workers. Another 50,000 lost their jobs from subcontractors, restaurants, stores, service stations and hospitals, to mention a few. Someone placed a sign “Will the last person leaving SEATTLE–turn out the lights.” Most cities would be happy to have what we now have. In fact, many towns all over the US are bidding for our businesses. ‬‬‬

We had a group of bright young folks form CHECC, Choose and Effective City Council. From the late 1960’s early 1970’s, all nine member of the city council were replaced with CHECC’s new and bright candidates. They did not always agree, but what they did was good for the whole city and the City’s future. ‬‬‬

‪Our City Council is now an embarrassment for a city of our size or for that matter a city of any size. Have you heard the term decerebrate frog? This is an animal that has no connection to its brain but its limbs still twitch because of nerve stimulations. Our present council fills this definition to a “T.” There has not been any action taken by the city council in the last 10 years that could be categorized as well thought out much less brilliant. If this were the old west they would all be on crutches for having shot themselves in the foot. ‬‬‬

How much did it cost the citizens of the city for the council to vote 100%, every last one of them, for the head tax. Now suddenly they vote it out. Were they drinking when they took the first vote, did they all have a simultaneous stroke or seizure. Now all of a sudden 7 of the 9 are all thinking again. Is it simply they all think they will loose the next election for being stupid.

‪We have spent millions trying to house the folks in tents. A large percentage of the homeless do not want the offer. Yes they are poor, yes many have drug problems, yes many have mental health issues. However, nothing that has been done has helped the problem. The Council throws millions at the problem with no accountability of how the money is spent for no positive effect. This seems to be a pattern of the Council. Throw money at the problem, do not account for how it is spent and move on to the next issue. Do not consider what is best for the whole city. Do not govern the whole city. ‬‬‬

‪We need to form CHECC again. Never in recent history has the city seen a less functional City Council. We voters cannot let running the city become that of a decerebrate animal twitching to every stimulus without having a cognitive leadership making decisions necessary to govern a city such as ours.‬‬‬

Start thinking about candidates to put this gang in a $15/hr. job.

Ace
Ace
5 years ago

Someone has to put it together. Maybe that could be you Fred? Come up with a respectable slate and I’ll be happy to donate and volunteer.

Melissa Westbrook
Melissa Westbrook
5 years ago

First, the head tax WAS reasonable, given who was being taxed.

Second, the fault was asking for money with no plan but “homeless needs.” Nope, it was doomed without a plan.

Three,
“This is not a winnable battle.” The opposition, she said, has “unlimited resources.”“

This is Lisa Herbold speaking. Any elected who says this when there had been a uniamous vote should not be in office. It’s called leadership and if you cut and run when Amazon rattles its saber, you probably need to think about your own abilities.

Nope
Nope
5 years ago

The city really doesn’t have a lot of ways of raising more money

– property tax but homeowners including me are sick of it going up
– sales tax but impacts poor far harder
– income tax but illegal

So we basically had an income tax on large employers. They didn’t like the gross income part which made it hard to hide profits.

23 years in the CD
23 years in the CD
5 years ago
Reply to  Nope

How about spending money more wisely? The city has $2B more for its 2018 budget ($6B) than 2013. We have the fastest growing city in the US but the size of city government has grown at a much faster rate than population… without much to show.

They have blown through that extra $2B/year and never acknowledge that they had all that money. Simply spending more money is not always the answer.

HTS3
HTS3
5 years ago
Reply to  Nope

Okay, lets pause a second. You immediately assume we need more money. Several consultants hired by the city disagree with that notion. They independently concluded that we don’t need to spend more money, we just need to spend what we have in better ways. Let’s start with that. How about the Mayor and City Council lead us by demonstrating that they value the nearly $190,000,000 we already invest every year. Okay, I also have to comment on your notion about the taxing of gross income. If you understood that a tax on gross profits has very little to do with income/profits. Some businesses have 20% or 30% profit. Others have 2%. Do you understand that this tax could impact businesses differently? Maybe not fairly? And the reason the link it to Gross, is that taxing Profits/Income is illegal.

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
5 years ago

They didn’t “cut and run when Amazon rattles its saber”. They cut and ran when they realized we voters were going to send the tax down in flames in November, and they were afraid they’d go with it. Which they still should. The Idiot Sawant already admitted she’d be back for more, so this would never have stopped.

Cappie
Cappie
5 years ago

This is disappointing. The head tax made sense. Sorry to hear that Starbucks, Microsoft and others (Cosco?) worked with Amazon to overturn this. Sorry to hear the level of mistrust in our council and Seattle’s fiscal management. Sorry to read about the vitriol and utter contempt toward Sawant and her socialist proposals (calling her by her first name, guys, is the ultimate in disrespect). Sorry to read so many arrogant libertarian mansplainers dominating what used to be my favorite blog only 7 or 8 years ago, when more diverse voices were heard. Sorry my lifelong city and neighborhood feels so g.d. different these days, like a playground for the rich with corporate bullies standing guard at the gate.

Ace
Ace
5 years ago
Reply to  Cappie

Good… good… let the hate (for people you disagree with) flow through you…

Jim98122x
Jim98122x
5 years ago
Reply to  Cappie

Sorry you see it as “arrogant mansplaining” and a lack of diversity, when really it’s just that not *everyone* in on-board with automatic, enthusiastic “YES!” votes for every new tax anymore, like it used to be. There’s plenty of diversity now. Maybe more than ever, even. It’s just not all “more taxes, please!” voices like it used to be. At some point lots of us are now saying “enough”. That’s not arrogant mansplaining or a lack of diversity. It’s just the opposite. What you should really be sorry for is that you can’t seem to handle the diversity because it doesn’t all agree with you anymore.

CityOfVagrants
CityOfVagrants
5 years ago
Reply to  Cappie

You might want to work on your list of companies that actually employ people in Seattle who would be impacted by this. Also heaven forbid you have to see any opposing viewpoints. You might think Seattle is full of right wing nazis now, but to the rest of the country we are still considered the far left.

CD Neighbor
CD Neighbor
5 years ago
Reply to  Cappie

Speak for yourself – I’m not a man nor am I a libertarian, but I don’t care for Sawant’s policies (didn’t vote for her, won’t ever vote for her) and definitely don’t have any confidence in the city council’s ability to manage the city’s finances responsibly….

I also don’t believe for a moment that enabling homelessness and drug abuse is compassionate or good for either individuals or society.

I don’t think for a moment that the populace is revolting against this tax because they sympathize with Amazon or big corporations.

Local
Local
5 years ago
Reply to  Cappie

Well put Cappie. I’m with you, lots of us are. Just not quite as vocal as some.

Fred
Fred
5 years ago

Vote Sawant out. Get out of our district! Can’t wait till we say bye bye big mouth.

RWK
RWK
5 years ago

I think the City Council’s reversal of this tax was done for purely political reasons. They saw the writing on the wall…..that the referendum would be approved this fall, and that many of them (if not all) would not be re-elected in 2019.

This Council is a group of clowns, who have no idea how to manage a growing city.

Paul
Paul
5 years ago

City council is looking down the barrel of a lot of pissed off voters as people who invested in community here get taxed out of home ownership and rents have skyrocketed to the point where even professional workers cannot afford to be anywhere near their jobs.Council loudly virtue signals all day long as people of color drain out of Seattle. The media has stayed away from the firestorm of public push back about removing parking on a still diverse Rainier avenue to put in bike lanes. Council continues to fund the very “service providers” their hired consultant told them are ineffective regarding homelessness and council continues to put out a nationwide welcome mat to all comers to come and camp here. People have had it and hopefully November will grind this past decade of city government to a halt. No one is running a city at our city hall but there has been tons of virtue signalling during a badly managed boom. Hopefully more than 29% of district 3 votes next time and gets rid of the Sawant rock around their necks.

RWK
RWK
5 years ago
Reply to  Paul

I agree with you, but I would add a bright spot in City government: Mayor Durkan. I think she is doing a great job, so far.