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from the with-the-power-to-tax-comes-the-power-to-destroy dept.
Amazon fails to unseat pro-tax city council members in Seattle
Amazon has suffered a setback in its own backyard as several candidates for Seattle's City Council won election despite a $1.5 million campaign by business groups to defeat them. That included Kshama Sawant, an incumbent and socialist who has been a thorn in Amazon's side in recent years. The vote was held last Tuesday, but the results only became clear in recent days.
The result is significant for Amazon because last year Seattle's city council passed a $275 per employee tax on large employers. Amazon, Starbucks, and other large Seattle businesses blasted the law and funded a ballot measure to overturn it. Facing the threat of having their law overturned by voters, the city council itself repealed the measure a month after it passed.
If business groups had defeated pro-tax candidates in last week's election, it would have made the city council very reluctant to consider taxing employers again. Instead, the election results have emboldened supporters of an "Amazon tax."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by DavePolaschek on Wednesday November 13 2019, @12:59PM
Not quite as stupid as it sounds. One of the problems in Seattle is that the area is full. The housing market is pretty dysfunctional and it’s nearly impossible for someone not working for a tech company to find an affordable place to live. Same sort of thing as Silicon Valley, complete with natural boundaries preventing the area from growing, plus manmade restrictions on building (open space laws) that further cut down on the places where new housing can go.
The saner alternative would be removing some of the obstacles to building more affordable housing, but that would be political suicide due to the NIMBYs who already live there.