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Seattle approves tax on businesses like Amazon, Starbucks to fight homelessness
Boston Globe ^ | May 14, 2018 | Associated Press

Posted on 05/14/2018 5:24:41 PM PDT by EdnaMode

The Seattle City Council has approved a tax on large businesses such as Amazon and Starbucks to fight homelessness.

The council on Monday unanimously backed a compromise tax plan that will charge large businesses about $275 per full-time worker a year. It’s lower than the $500-per-worker tax initially proposed.

The tax would begin in 2019 and raise about $48 million a year to pay for affordable housing and homeless services.

Some council members acknowledged it wasn’t enough to address urgent housing needs but conceded they couldn’t get the six votes needed to override a potential veto by the mayor.

Other cities have implemented similar taxes, but critics say Seattle’s tax could threaten the booming local economy and drive away jobs.

Supporters say businesses that have benefited from Seattle’s prosperity and contributed to growing income inequality should pay.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: 1; amazon; demagogicparty; headtax; homelessness; housing; jeffbezos; kshamasawant; seattle; starbucks; washington
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Yeah that'll solve everything! Taxing corporations will cure homelessness!
1 posted on 05/14/2018 5:24:42 PM PDT by EdnaMode
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To: EdnaMode

“I see you have some money there. Give it to me.”


2 posted on 05/14/2018 5:25:40 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum (<img src="http://i.imgur.com/WukZwJP.gif" width=800>https://i.imgur.com/zXSEP5Z.gif)
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To: EdnaMode

Amazon can just donate crates and boxes for the homeless to live in. Wouldn’t cost Amazon a dime and supply the homeless with new building materials.


3 posted on 05/14/2018 5:28:41 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (CNN - the most busted name in news.)
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To: EdnaMode

Can’t Bezos get a Hawaiian judge to approve an injunction?


4 posted on 05/14/2018 5:30:41 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Give a man a fish and he'll be a Democrat. Teach a man to fish and he'll be a responsible citizen.)
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To: EdnaMode

They could cut welfare to illegal aliens. What, what am I talking about? They’re the first priority!


5 posted on 05/14/2018 5:33:10 PM PDT by Telepathic Intruder
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To: EdnaMode

The modern day vagrants, hobo’s, bums my grandad talks about.


6 posted on 05/14/2018 5:39:04 PM PDT by SkyDancer ( ~ Just Consider Me A Random Fact Generator ~ Eat Sleep Fly Repeat ~)
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To: EdnaMode

In response to the tax, Starbucks issued an apology for racism and volunteered to let Seattle’s homeless sleep in its coffeehouses.


7 posted on 05/14/2018 5:40:40 PM PDT by Fedora
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To: EdnaMode

Ok, Amazon, Starbucks, next move is yours. Let’s see if you have the courage to move out of Seattle as you suggested you might do if this horrendous bill was passed.


8 posted on 05/14/2018 5:42:43 PM PDT by ducttape45 ("Righteousness exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people." Proverbs 14:34)
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To: EdnaMode
Supporters say businesses that have benefited from Seattle’s prosperity and contributed to growing income inequality should pay.

Do the supporters of this new tax not understand that the city is prosperous because of the businesses not the other way around.

9 posted on 05/14/2018 5:45:11 PM PDT by KirbDog
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To: EdnaMode

Cities across the nation would like to thank Seattle for making them more attractive to large employers.


10 posted on 05/14/2018 5:47:18 PM PDT by Zhang Fei (Journalism is about covering important stories. With a pillow, until they stop moving.)
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To: EdnaMode
Yeah that'll solve everything! Taxing corporations will cure homelessness!

Yeah, higher taxes solve every problem. I was thinking: if taxes will stop global warming, how about a big tax on Hawaiians to stop Kilauea from erupting?

11 posted on 05/14/2018 5:50:05 PM PDT by Bernard Marx
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Sweet, solve homelessness by encouraging companies to leave and homeless to come. Nice plan. Perhaps I can convice our mayor to bus our homeless there


12 posted on 05/14/2018 5:53:01 PM PDT by dsrtsage (For Leftists, World History starts every day at breakfast)
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To: ducttape45

Moving to a town near you and bringing all their lib employees with them? That’s the new problem with big corporations moving out of lib strongholds.


13 posted on 05/14/2018 5:53:59 PM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: EdnaMode

And just how much housing and homeless services will actually be created with the $48 million and how much will actually go to bike paths, art works near city hall and empty piss-stained “green” busses


14 posted on 05/14/2018 5:56:46 PM PDT by digger48
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To: EdnaMode

“Supporters say businesses that have benefited from Seattle’s prosperity and contributed to growing income inequality should pay.”

These fricking idiots. Seattle has benefited from the businesses’ prosperity. I know that living in the suburbs of Seattle, every time I buy something off of Amazon I pay the sales tax - some goes to the state, some county. Of course, even if Amazon moves away the state will still get that sales tax.


15 posted on 05/14/2018 5:57:43 PM PDT by 21twelve
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To: dsrtsage

Raise taxes on soda to reduce soda sales.
Raise taxes on cigarettes to reduce sales.
Etc.

Of course, to liberals, businesses should also be include in the realm of sin taxes.

And vice -versa, subsidize solar energy to increase sun farms. Subsidize Tesla to increase electric cars. Subsidize homelessness to increase homelessness.


16 posted on 05/14/2018 6:01:52 PM PDT by 21twelve
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To: digger48

Very insightful. Sounds like where I live (a Peoples Republic with tax money wasted on “public art”.


17 posted on 05/14/2018 6:03:49 PM PDT by frank ballenger (End non-citizen voting & leftist media news censorship or we're finishid.)
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To: 21twelve

Remember Rachel Corrie!!


18 posted on 05/14/2018 6:04:54 PM PDT by szweig (HYHEY!! (Have You Had Enough Yet))
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To: EdnaMode

Recall the old joke?

Join the war on poverty and kill a poor person.

Sadly, it’s about as rational as as this bovine excretion.


19 posted on 05/14/2018 6:24:05 PM PDT by ChildOfThe60s (If you can remember the 60's....You weren't really there)
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To: EdnaMode

What stops those liberal owned businesses from moving outside the city limits?


20 posted on 05/14/2018 6:35:31 PM PDT by BigEdLB (BigEdLB, Russian BOT, At your service)
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