![]() ![]() Sawant could be fined up to $5,000 per violation. Lawyers for Sawant, meanwhile, were granted more time before a Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission hearing on allegations the District 3 representative used her office to promote the Tax Amazon ballot measure effort, a potential violation of city law. The ballot initiative represents an expected escalation in the push to force large companies to help pay for addressing the city’s homelessness emergency, joining Sawant’s efforts of driving the tax forward on the city council.Įarlier this month, District 2 council member Tammy Morales, representing South Seattle, joined as co-sponsor of Sawant’s so-called “Tax Amazon” legislation, a proposal to create a payroll tax on the city’s largest 3% of businesses in Seattle that her office says would raise $300 million annually. That’s 21,000 or so, if you are keeping score at home. “We are ready to fight for a world where tenants enjoy the stability, security, and peace of mind provided by publicly controlled, permanently affordable green housing,” a statement from the Tenants Union of Washington State reads.Īfter filing, supporters will have six months to procure the needed signatures - Ten percent (10%) of the total votes cast for mayor at the last Mayoral election - to put the measure on the ballot for a November vote. These will include making existing homes green and helping to eliminate fossil fuel usage, with work carried out by union labor and Priority Hire. On-site child care services will be incorporated where possible.Ģ5% will be used to fund Green New Deal related programs. All housing will be union-built with Priority Hire, publicly owned or controlled permanently affordable employ principles of universal design to ensure accessibility and be energy-efficient and green. ![]() It will exempt all nonprofits, cooperatives, and small businesses.ħ5% of the tax will be used to build Social Housing. The tax will raise at least $300 million in funding annually, ongoing and with no “sunset clause,” with a tax of 0.7% on corporate payroll for the top 3% of businesses in Seattle. “Big business has long been enjoying a tax haven in Seattle and Washington State,” District 3 representative Kshama Sawant said in the announcement: The “community movement” is “prepared to act if city council refuses,” the group says. The Tax Amazon group said Thursday it is filing a ballot initiative on the tax “in order to fund social housing and a Green New Deal.” ![]() With new political support and after the stalling out of statewide legislation that some feared would undermine the effort in the city, backers of the push to tax Amazon and large companies in Seattle say they are ready to take their cause to voters. ![]()
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