Do you support Kshama Sawant's head tax proposal? (Seattle, Spokane: sale, real estate market)

[Goinback2011]

SEATTLE - The Seattle City Council voted 5-4 Friday to approve a controversial $500-per-employee 'head tax' on the city's largest businesses.

The council voted on the proposal as a committee, which means another vote must be taken before the head tax receives final council approval.

Seattle Council OKs controversial $500 head tax, rejects mayor's alternative plan | KOMO

[rkcarguy]

That is a very good point. Progressive vs. Socialist and the fine line between the two. We live in a global economic world now. Tax a company too much, and they will simply do business else-ware as we've found out with out-sourcing of manufacturing over the last 3+ decades. When they move else-ware, the trickle-down of everything, from housing to food to cars and transportation, all the consuming done by those workers, is lost. In some trades and area's a certain % of these people may fall into the safety net increasing the need for taxes to fund a larger safety net. So the socialist nutballs then look for MORE taxes from a shrinking tax base, and the cycle perpetually repeats.
A smaller example, is Seattle's soda tax. Costco has signs up showing how much of the price is that tax, and a note saying they can go to their other locations and pay this much less for the same soda. The same thing is going to happen with the Head Tax, the larger corporations will simply sublet their buildings to smaller and likely lower paying companies, and relocate. They may just relocate to Auburn or Redmond, or out of state. Then who looses? The workers, and the places these workers support through their "consumables".

[RotseCherut]

Originally Posted by bergun

Hey RotseCherut... Now that was funny!! You will be miss when you leave. I'm about three years behind you!!


I'm far from the Far Left and far from the Far Right. I see myself as more of a Truman/Kennedy/Johnson Democrat. I'm just glad that this simply isn't a Left verse Right issue since that's what the City Council wants it to be since they know that the current "battle lines" have been drawn by both sides and is a way to manipulate the city voters to get what THEY want.

I will miss you and other open-minded/sane posters here on the Seattle forum as well. Bergun, you are one of my favorite posters here as well. Well, being that I am right-leaning Libertarian I think we can agree on many political issues. I use to be a Republican and was a Republican for many years but became disgruntled with the party and how corrupt it has become and how far many Republicans have strayed away from the party principles and our Constitution. I could go on and on, but I think you catch the drift.


Well, we can always think of the bright side. These whackjobs in the Seattle City Council will probably eventually ruin Seattle's economy and turn the city into a overpriced, homeless infested flea pit and all the businesses that help fund all the freeloaders and which the city council extorted so much money from will all be gone. In fact, I could only predict that eventually almost all companies who do not leave the state will bail from the Seattle city limits and go to places like Bothell, Bellevue, Kirkland, Lynnwood, Tacoma, etc where there is more sane taxes, regulations and a better business environment. Many people don't realize it, but Seattle's startup culture actually died about 10 years ago as the city became too expensive and the government was making things harder and harder on small businesses to operate in the city. What Seattle is banking on is the Libertarian like politics that Washington state had for many decades and made it thrive. Seattle also was a traditional corporate city for many years because of these favorable politics. However, with the liberal socialist nutjobs in the state government and the communists that now run the city of Seattle, all the foundations that made Seattle so successful will be chiseled away until nothing is left.



Portland and the state of Oregon are another good of what happens when communists and socialists take control of your state and city governments. Forbes magazine rated Oregon as the worst state in America next to Hawaii to start a business. The only reason Portland is so desirable is because of its scenic location and its proximity to Seattle. A lot of Seattle businesses have satellite offices in Portland for those who wish to live there, yet are ok with the massive taxes and salaries that don't match the cost of living.

I left the state of Oregon over 6 years ago because it was way too brutal operating as a small business in the state as the government would tax me to death and the cost of living kept going up. Now, Oregon is even implementing taxes on cars and such and slowly adding a sales tax, which was suppose to be the major perk of living in this state. 10% state income tax makes it impossible for large or small businesses to thrive in a place that costs more to live than even cities like Chicago with much higher salaries. Of course, Washington now wants a state tax among the gazillion of other proposed taxes to feed the politicians, homeless and low-wage brainwashed workers who are promised high wages and all types of government benefits. Sadly, the politicians fail to disclose that this money doesn't fall from the sky, but is being redistributed from capitalist business enterprises that range from the big corporations to the little mom and pops. All of them are being squeezed and alienated to appease all the freeloaders and other simple-minded morons who don't understand how economics and businesses operate and survive.



Ironically, even in Communist Oregon, Nike doesn't have to pay any state tax because Phil Knight was very clear that he will leave the state and just about has done so on many occasions. Now, Jeff Bezos is making the same threats and the Seattle city government is laughing at him. At least the Oregon state government wasn't as full of itself and accommodated Nike. If Oregon loses Nike they will lose the largest revenue the state has and there is no other big corporations who will take their place. Oregon's economy is crap because of its communist like politics. Washington has much more to lose than Oregon at this point.

[Beernik]

I agree that this is going to be implemented as a payroll tax. Which means is going to come out of our pockets, not out of the company’s pocket.

Being new to Washington and even newer to Seattle, what I see from a lot of by the governments here is the “We have to do something and this is something” mindset.

There isn’t a whole lot of “Is this the best way to raise revenue? Is this even a good way to raise revenue? What is the exact project we are going to implement with the revenue?”

[ScottStielow]

Too bad. Sorry it has come to this. Use to be a great City. Not anymore. The only way to change the mindset is to get new people in there that are not or believe in the "Something mindset", hopefully soon!

[thatguy950]

Stupidity wins again in Seattle

[cttransplant85]

Originally Posted by rkcarguy

That is a very good point. Progressive vs. Socialist and the fine line between the two. We live in a global economic world now. Tax a company too much, and they will simply do business else-ware as we've found out with out-sourcing of manufacturing over the last 3+ decades. When they move else-ware, the trickle-down of everything, from housing to food to cars and transportation, all the consuming done by those workers, is lost. In some trades and area's a certain % of these people may fall into the safety net increasing the need for taxes to fund a larger safety net. So the socialist nutballs then look for MORE taxes from a shrinking tax base, and the cycle perpetually repeats.
A smaller example, is Seattle's soda tax. Costco has signs up showing how much of the price is that tax, and a note saying they can go to their other locations and pay this much less for the same soda. The same thing is going to happen with the Head Tax, the larger corporations will simply sublet their buildings to smaller and likely lower paying companies, and relocate. They may just relocate to Auburn or Redmond, or out of state. Then who looses? The workers, and the places these workers support through their "consumables".

That's what happened with Venezuela's entire economy. All the taxes and public spending were great for the first few years until all the businesses and people with Capital just got up and left and everyone ended up poor and starving to death. The only way to fix this would be to have one world government where the businesses have no where to go, which I don't think anyone thinks is a good idea.

[GatsbyGatz]

There goes the local economy.

[pnwguy2]

As I understand it, the mayor can veto the council in a 5-4 vote. The million (or billion) dollar question is will she?

Controversial $500 head tax moves forward; mayor may veto | KOMO

[cttransplant85]

Now the activists are calling for Amazon executives to be jailed. What business in their right mind would invest in this environment? It is beyond hostile. Head count taxing and jailing for speaking up against it this is like a communist dictatorship. A lot of these businesses do not need to employ as many people as they do, they do it for convenience they're going to just fire everyone they don't need. You're shooting yourselves in the foot.