Sleepless in Seattle: Head Tax Edition [VIDEO]

Rich Terrell

Victory Girls Blog  "The cuddly socialists of the Seattle City Council got together for some old fashioned Kurt Cobain headbanging Monday afternoon. They must have been wearing protective headgear, to protect eardrums from the yowling that went up as they passed their “scaled down” head tax on large employers.

"And they didn’t leave any council members out in the cold on the maneuver either. This blatant money grab was a 9-0 slam dunkaroo.

The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Monday to adopt a new tax on the city’s largest employers to help address homelessness.

The ordinance will impose a tax of $275 per employee, per year on for-profit companies that gross at least $20 million per year in the city — down from a $500-per-head tax that Mayor Jenny Durkan threatened to veto.

About 3 percent of Seattle businesses will be affected, according to the council.

“We have community members who are dying,” Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda before the 9-0 vote. “They are dying on our streets today because there is not enough shelter” and affordable housing.

"Oh, there is no doubt that there are people on the streets of Seattle in record numbers. But the council might want to look at a few of the economic factors (in addition to a relatively comfortable climate) driving that before they go raiding the pockets of the area’s larger employers." . . .