Remember That Seattle Business Head Tax? It’s Gone, Baby, Gone
[guest post by JVW]
If far-left politicians were capable of embarrassment, this would be a doozy:
In a stunning reversal without parallel in Seattle’s recent political history, the City Council voted 7-2 Tuesday to repeal a controversial head tax on large employers.
Mayor Jenny Durkan is expected to make the action final by signing it into law.
The repeal, ending a raucous special meeting called by Council President Bruce Harrell, came less than a month after the council voted 9-0 to approve the tax of $275 per employee, per year to help fund housing and services for homeless people.
The move also came as a business-backed campaign to kill the tax was preparing to submit petition signatures this week to qualify the referendum for the November ballot.
I like the part bout “to help fund housing and services for homeless people.” It’s kind of a subtle acknowledgement that not all of the money would go to that cause; some of it would be siphoned off by useless city bureaucrats and exploding pension and health obligations.
Before the tally, Councilmember Lisa Herbold said she felt like weeping but would side with the majority of her colleagues because the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce had managed to persuade “the vast majority” of voters to oppose the tax.
Herbold said she lost hope over the weekend after seeing poll results and talking with advocates. Better to retreat now rather than see voters cancel the tax in November after a bitter, monthlong struggle, she said.
Man, it really sucks when the voters exercise their right to disagree with the prerogatives of their elected officials, doesn’t it, Councilwoman Herbold?
Seattle apparently believes it is in a competition with San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, and other large metropolitan locales for the Wokest City in America designation, as some recent years’ decisions made there would seem to indicate. It’s a race to kill the goose who lays the golden eggs, as progressive policies inevitably squeeze out the younger middle class, much as the other aforementioned cities are now realizing.
Read the rest of the article to have a laugh at the banality of left-wing economic thought, the unhingedness (new word) of local activists, and a city council that has shredded its credibility with both businesses and local activists with this grossly unforced error.
For all the talk about the alleged blue wave coming this fall, the left has a great deal of infighting to go through before they can attempt to advance a coherent agenda.
– JVW