“have you heard about the new employee hours tax?”
“yes, my neighbor business asked me to sign a petition against it”
“so you’re worried it is a slippery slope? Cause you know it would mostly not apply to either of you unless you’re making like 5–10 million dollars a year”
“definitely… enough is enough… they don’t listen to us at all”
“yeah… I spoke to businesses up and down Roosevelt and the U District for four years who were really worried about the bike lanes and I heard a lot of concerns about taxes and fees and permits and other restrictions that stressed out businesses… I know there’s a lot to worry about… and a lot of times the owners don’t even live in Seattle… where do you live?”
“I live on the Eastside”
“Yeah… I heard it a lot from people… I get taxed where I live and my business is taxed here and I don’t see any benefits….. (sigh)…. I’m a housing advocate and I have looked at the housing crisis in-depth for a few years and the main thing is that we don’t have any money to build affordable housing… and so we have all these people living in tents.. and I know most business owners don’t want that… so we have some limited options…. barely any money is coming from the federal government, and it isn’t really coming from the state government and …. I mean between you and me… next year is an election year and all these councilmembers want to be able to say they taxed Amazon…. and of course that will be popular … so who can blame them for trying to find a legal way to do it!”
(pause / breath)
“and a lot of them — I know this is hard to believe sometimes…. but they very much don’t want to have a whole city of national corporate chains and they want to make sure this tax doesn’t apply to independent small businesses… and there’s people out there trying to misinform all of you, the EHT is *not* a first step to finding a way to tax you, too.”
“well you’re clearly passionate about this and I hadn’t thought about how this is connected to affordable housing…I really appreciate you trying to educate me … I really don’t know what to think… I hope you keep me updated about this issue… I’ll see what my neighbor says”
“I’ll be back with more information… just maybe hold off on signing that petition just yet?”
Let’s Take Action: I’ll be out canvassing this weekend and next week in the U District, Wallingford and Roosevelt and would love your help talking to small business owners. Or you can just tag along and watch and maybe I’ll come with you to your neighborhood next time.
Upcoming Event: Tax Amazon Town Hall — Build Affordable Housing! Tuesday, March 27 at 6 PM — 8 PM at Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute, 104 17th Avenue South, Seattle, Washington 98144
Learn more about the Employee Hours Tax & read the “REPORT of the PROGRESSIVE REVENUE TASK FORCE on HOUSING & HOMELESSNESS March 9, 2018”
Katie Wilson of the Transit Riders Union wrote in Crosscut:
In one way, the causes of homelessness are complex, a tangled web of sharpening economic inequality, fraying social bonds, opioid addiction, systemic racism and mass incarceration, and a waning demand for the manual skills that once buttressed a middle-class existence. All that is compounded by decades of federal disinvestment in public housing, social services, and mental health.
But in another way, homelessness is very simple. It is not having a home — a place of stability, safety, privacy, refuge from the elements. If there is one characteristic that unites the homeless population in all its great diversity, it’s that the overwhelming majority say they would move into affordable housing if it were available.
According to C is For Crank’s Erica C. Barnett…
The city’s progressive revenue task force held its final meeting on Wednesday morning, adopting a report (final version to come) that recommends new taxes that could bring in as much as $150 million a year for housing and services for homeless and low-income people in Seattle. Half of that total, $75 million, would come from some version of an employee hours tax; the variables include what size business will pay the tax ($8 million vs. $10 million in gross revenues), the tax rate and whether it will be a flat per-employee fee or a percentage of revenues; and whether businesses that don’t hit the threshold for the tax will have to pay a so-called “skin in the game” fee for doing business in the city. The task force also talked about making the tax graduated based on employer size, but noted that such a tax may not be legal and would almost certainly be subject to immediate legal challenges.
Seattle Channel EHT discussion:
