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Seattle reverses course on business tax after Amazon pressure
The Hill ^ | Reid Wilson | Reid Wilson

Posted on 06/12/2018 9:23:05 AM PDT by yesthatjallen

Just weeks after passing a new tax on big businesses, Seattle political leaders signaled late Monday they would reverse course and repeal it.

Mayor Jenny Durkan and city council President Bruce Harrell said in statements that they would end the tax, initially meant to combat rising homelessness in a city where housing prices have soared.

“We heard you,” Durkan and seven of the nine city council members said in a statement. “This week, the City Council is moving forward with the consideration of legislation to repeal the current tax on large businesses to address the homelessness crisis.”

Business groups, led by the city’s largest employers like Amazon and Starbucks, had raised $200,000 in just a few weeks to gather signatures for a referendum challenging the new tax. They had planned to submit those signatures on Tuesday in an effort to place the referendum on the November ballot.

“The announcement from Mayor Durkan and the City Council is the breath of fresh air Seattle needs,” said Marilyn Strickland, who heads the Seattle Metro Chamber of Commerce. “Repealing the tax on jobs gives our region the chance to address homelessness in a productive, focused and unified way.”

The tax would have fallen on businesses that generated more than $20 million in revenue. The 585 businesses in the city that qualified would have faced a $275-per-employee tax, money that would have gone to pay for affordable housing and programs aimed at curbing homelessness.

ETC...

(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: amazon; seattle
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To: Paladin2

Is Amazon Smile selling nose-rings for politicians?


21 posted on 06/12/2018 9:57:46 AM PDT by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: yesthatjallen

If anyone thinks that dime one of that tax money would have gone to the “homeless” rather than crazy liberal projects and fatcat liberal donors and politicians, I have a bridge over Puget Sound to sell you.


22 posted on 06/12/2018 9:59:22 AM PDT by JennysCool
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To: Paladin2

Runs and owns them.


23 posted on 06/12/2018 10:00:30 AM PDT by Jean2
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To: yesthatjallen

Good, but bezos still voted for the leftists who wanted this law, and will vote for them in the future.


24 posted on 06/12/2018 10:07:21 AM PDT by I want the USA back (Lying Media: completely irresponsible. Complicit in the destruction of this country.)
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To: ptsal
Politicans in Seattle have been fitted with nose rings.

Special deal on Amazon. /sarc

25 posted on 06/12/2018 10:16:18 AM PDT by ptsal ( Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please. - M. Twain)
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To: yesthatjallen

bookmark


26 posted on 06/12/2018 10:40:40 AM PDT by GOP Poet
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To: pepsionice

Yes, fix the problem by helping those that can work with jobs; institutionalize the others, else give them tickets to go somewhere else (e.g., to live by family). End result should be NO ONE living on the streets, camping out on public property. We need to reverse this trend to welcome them living on sidewalks and in parks, etc.


27 posted on 06/12/2018 10:42:14 AM PDT by Reno89519 (No Amnesty! No Catch-and-Release! Just Say No to All Illegal Aliens! Arrest & Deport!)
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To: yesthatjallen

Notice they didn’t collect $$$ to remove the politicians who did this.


28 posted on 06/12/2018 11:10:51 AM PDT by Zathras
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To: yesthatjallen

The best part is that the city council members that voted to repeal the tax, will probably be voted out of office for folding, for not being progressive enough.

Remember that libs are nothing if not spiteful.


29 posted on 06/12/2018 11:26:52 AM PDT by Sergio (An object at rest cannot be stopped! - The Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight)
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To: pepsionice
There’s no reason to pay upscale prices for homeless people who have no real return to the city in terms of value.

EXACTLY! Just because you "want" to live near downtown Seattle, doesn't mean you should automatically GET to live near downtown Seattle! That is NOT reality!
30 posted on 06/12/2018 11:36:06 AM PDT by ExTxMarine (Diversity is tolerance; diverse points of views will not be tolerated!)
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To: yesthatjallen

Bezos asks for taxes on you. Not him.


31 posted on 06/12/2018 12:10:51 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Who is Tommy Robinson?)
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To: fella

Seattle has always been for sale.


32 posted on 06/12/2018 12:12:31 PM PDT by Uncle Miltie (Who is Tommy Robinson?)
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To: yesthatjallen

Holy shite, Batman! This is BFD! ... Indeed it is, Robin. Indeed it is ...


33 posted on 06/12/2018 1:50:43 PM PDT by catnipman ((Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!))
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To: Uncle Miltie

“Bezos asks for taxes on you. Not him.”

and you don’t think amazon passes the cost of those taxes onto its customers? which means EVERY ONE of amazon’s customers get to pay those homeless people taxes, not JUST the customers who live in Seattle ...


34 posted on 06/12/2018 1:55:21 PM PDT by catnipman ((Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!))
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To: yesthatjallen
Amazon had less to do with the reversal as did the grassroots citizenry revolt to overturn the ruling with an initiative.

For those who don't know, the Seattle city council has mismanaged 10's of millions of dollars already and things have only gotten worse.

More vagrants, more crime, more open drug use and public urination and defecation.

Even liberal Seattle citizens were getting sick of major funds going wasted.

7/9 counsel members are up for reelection next year and I doubt any of them will get reelected.

It's a beautiful thing.

35 posted on 06/12/2018 3:21:48 PM PDT by PROCON ('Progressive' is a Euphemism for Totalitarian)
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To: PROCON; yesthatjallen
City council member Lorena Gonzalez, who said she would vote to overturn the tax, pinned the blame on the business community.

“I am deeply troubled and disappointed by the political tactics utilized by a powerful faction of corporations that seem to prioritize corporations over people,” Gonzalez said in a statement. “It was my sound belief that a compromise on this policy had been reached with business, and as an elected official representing all of Seattle, I am deeply disappointed that certain members of the business community did not engage in good faith with the City of Seattle.”

I see that Kshama Sawant (Commie-Seattle) will not reverse her vote. I haven't found the other that will vote to keep the tax.

Interesting that Gonzalez, quoted above, may be a diaper red socialist, but she is voting to overturn the tax, in spite of her rhetoric.

36 posted on 06/12/2018 5:12:20 PM PDT by texas booster (Join FreeRepublic's Folding@Home team (Team # 36120) Cure Alzheimer's!)
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