#SeattleNeeds Relief! Also, we highly recommend @AGarlandPhoto for all your socially distanced protest photography needs. pic.twitter.com/2K0NID6inl
— Transit Riders Union (@SeattleTRU) April 29, 2020
Measures to tax big business accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic took another preliminary step at the Seattle City Council Wednesday as a torn cohort of public commenters weighed in on the suite of bills.
Proponents of the legislation criticized Mayor Jenny Durkan for opposing the tax and touted its ability to address multiple issues at once, while opponents called it a “tax on jobs” and claimed it could stunt response to the outbreak that has sickened more than 6,000 in King County.
“We are on the eve of a major economic downturn and instead of negotiating over new streams of revenue for city programs, we need our city leaders help and focus on getting our local jobs and economy back online,” said Don Blakeney, the Downtown Seattle Association’s vice president of advocacy and economic development.
The plan, spearheaded by council members Kshama Sawant and Tammy Morales, would, in the long run, tax the largest 2% of businesses to fund the construction of up to 10,000 units of social housing and the conversion of homes to environmental standards in line with the Green New Deal starting next year.
But Sawant and Morales have pushed the plan forward to also create a $500 a month Seattle COVID-19 relief payment program for up to 100,000 households beginning later this year.
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The program would prioritize assistance to “seniors; those that are undocumented, immigrants, and refugees; individuals experiencing homelessness; working people who have lost incomes and become destitute as a result of the pandemic; and, others who experience structural or institutional barriers to accessing support from the government.”
The spending plan includes starting the relief effort by borrowing $200 million from other city programs:
“We are currently experiencing multiple crises: a pandemic, economic downturn, and climate change,” Emily Hazelton, a data analyst with a local healthcare organization and a volunteer with 350 Seattle, said, noting she thinks this legislation could tackle all three of these issues at once.
Another speaker said the bill isn’t a “tax on jobs, it is a tax that creates green jobs.” Other proponents noted the jump in Amazon’s stock since March as evidence it is benefitting from the pandemic.
In an opinion piece in The Seattle Times on Apr. 20, council member Alex Pedersen called it “job-killing” and the “Bellevue Relocation Act.” One commenter in the hearing Wednesday argued the entities being taxed would be those working most to respond to the pandemic and would hamper the region’s response.
The businesses subject to the tax would be those with annual payrolls exceeding $7 million and would be taxed 1.3%, with non-profits, grocery stores, and public employers getting exemptions. This totals about 800 businesses that would be taxed, or about 2% of the nearly 40,000 operating in Seattle, according to 2018 data.
If passed, the tax would go into effect in June of this year, but payments — over $286 million for 2020 — would not be due until February 2022. Beginning in 2022, the tax would raise $500 million annually.
The emergency payments of $500 each month for four months to up to 100,000 households would be funded through borrowing from other existing city funds. The money could be tapped from the voter-approved Families Education and Preschool Promise, Move Seattle, or the 2019 Library levy funds, for example. The total loan amount from the six sources available cannot exceed $200 million.
Meanwhile, the Tax Amazon group formed to push for the new tax announced it was filing to hold a ballot initiative on the tax “in order to fund social housing and a Green New Deal” this fall.
In 2018, the city council passed and then rolled back a $275 per full-time employee tax on companies reporting $20 million or greater in annual “taxable gross receipts.” That tax would have generated about $50 million annually.
Sawant lost the first battle for the new legislation’s passage as it was sent to the Select Budget Committee chaired by council member Teresa Mosqueda, instead of the District 3 council member’s Sustainability and Renters’ Rights Committee earlier this month.
Sawant told CHS in an interview earlier this month that the legislation would get a committee vote in mid-May. It would eventually need three-fourths of the council to approve the legislation and the mayor’s signature to go into effect. “There is no scenario under which people would receive checks this year,” Durkan recently told KING5. “That is never going to happen, and I think it’s irresponsible for anyone to say that that’s even possible.” (UPDATE: CHS has updated this quote to include the mayor’s full statement at the request of the mayor’s office.)
Starting May 1st, meanwhile, Sawant and tenant advocates have called for a “rent strike” in support of renters struggling to pay rent through the crisis.
$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE
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Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you.
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