Seattle approves tax on businesses like Amazon, Starbucks to fight homelessness

Boston Globe ^ | May 14, 2018 | Associated Press

[Professional Engineer]

HQ2 was always a disguise for new HQ. This action just hastens the exit.

[dfwgator]

Yeah that'll solve everything!

".....and the band played on..."

[Yaelle]

How about “if you have a job, half your paycheck should go to someone on the street.” Seems fair. Let me ask Aesop, 2500 years ago.

What? The ant shouldn’t have to support the grasshopper? What a radical new concept.

[Secret Agent Man]

Lord knows kibtard govt isnt ending it.

[BradyLS]

Trailer for sale or let.
Rooms for rent: 50 cents.
No phone. No food. No pets.
I ain’t got no cigarettes.

I spent three hours pushing brooms
Across the floors of these four-bit rooms.
I’m a man of means, by no means.
King of the road…

[aMorePerfectUnion]

Obviously, big corporations must have caused homelessness, so they should pay! /s

[BradyLS]

This day was coming. How can they complain?

[BBell]

Do the supporters of this new tax not understand that the city is prosperous because of the businesses not the other way around.

No. These businesses didn't build that.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Seattle approves tax on businesses like Amazon, Starbucks to fight homelessness

In a world in which the US print media actually cared about facts, this headline would read "Seattle raises taxes on businesses like Amazon and Starbucks to enable more homelessness". That's the reality - taxes will be raised for social benefits for the homeless which will attract more of them to Seattle.

Cities like San Francisco and Seattle have grown their homeless populations to spectacular new heights with liberal nonsense, and can now offer more beggars and human feces on the street than most slums in the Third World. And no Third World slum could ever dream of offering the spectacle of thousand of discarded heroin needles glittering in the morning sun on the streets that San Francisco can.

[A_Former_Democrat]

No, they don’t

They are stupid beyond comprehension

[rockrr]

Yep - “If you want more of something, subsidize it. If you want less, tax it” - Ronald Reagan

[Jack Hammer]

Consequence: more homeless, less business, less tax income.

[trebb]

Maybe they can team up with Illinois and start sending their wealth to other States....

[mewzilla]

Note to Starbucks: Sutton’s Law has not been repealed.

[mewzilla]

FWIW, I think it was more of a threat/extortion attempt that has now bit them on the butt.

[Feckless]

to fight homelessness

Just like "fighting poverty", all they will do is create more homeless.

[conejo99]

So:
1) Make employment more expensive.
2) Make unemployment more profitable (or less onerous).
3) Wait for positive results. Waiting, Waiting, ...

[Professional Engineer]

The tax would begin in 2019 and raise about $48 million a year to pay for affordable housing and homeless services.

In other words, if businesses spend $47 million per year to get outta Dodge, they still come out ahead.

[bert]

The tax profiles companies and then taxes them by discriminating.

Since the tax discriminates it is unconstitutional.

[lurk]

When you give out freebies, you increase the number of takers. Good thinking, Seattle.