Managing Partner » Seattle Repeals Tax After Amazon Lobbying Blitz

Seattle Repeals Tax After Amazon Lobbying Blitz

June 15, 2018

Sunnyvale, CA, USA - Feb. 21, 2016: Amazon Lab 126. Amazon Lab126 is an inventive research and development company that designs and engineers high-profile consumer electronic devices.
A tax on large businesses in Seattle that was slated to fund affordable housing and homeless services will be rescinded. It was passed unanimously one month ago, but Amazon, along with other businesses opposed it, and Amazon temporarily halted construction planning on a new high-rise building near its Seattle headquarters to underline its opposition. A spokesman for the No Tax on Jobs campaign, said Monday that the coalition appreciates that the Seattle City Council has heard the voices of the people loud and clear and are now reconsidering “this ill-conceived tax.” The announcement of the repeal came a few days before the campaign was scheduled to turn in signatures to qualify a referendum on the tax for the November ballot. One of the tax bill’s sponsors refused to back repeal, which she said would take place without a replacement strategy to house and shelter the homeless. Seattle’s rents before 2010 were on par with the national average, but by 2017, after Amazon built its corporate campus there, the median rental rate in Seattle had increased 41 percent in seven years, compared with a 17 percent increase in the national median rental rate. Many older apartment buildings that were affordable were bought, refurbished, and put back on the market at a much higher rental rate.

Read full article at:

Daily Updates

Sign up for our free daily newsletter for the latest news and business legal developments.

Scroll to Top