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Amazon reacts to Seattle head tax and ‘hostile’ rhetoric
Mynorthwest.com ^ | 5/14/18 | Mynorthwest.com

Posted on 05/14/2018 6:24:04 PM PDT by jeannineinsd

Hours after the Seattle City Council passed a head tax on the city’s largest businesses Monday, Amazon issued a statement in response.

The online shopping giant is grateful that the city amended its head tax proposal to a lesser amount, but notes that it is wary of city leaders’ attitudes toward business.

Amazon’s statement is attributed to Vice President Drew Herdener:

"We are disappointed by today’s city council decision to introduce a tax on jobs. While we have resumed construction planning for Block 18, we remain very apprehensive about the future created by the council’s hostile approach and rhetoric toward larger businesses, which forces us to question our growth here. City of Seattle revenues have grown dramatically from $2.8 billion in 2010 to $4.2 billion in 2017, and they will be even higher in 2018. This revenue increase far outpaces the Seattle population increase over the same time period. The city does not have a revenue problem — it has a spending efficiency problem. We are highly uncertain whether the city council’s anti-business positions or its spending inefficiency will change for the better."

As the council was debating the head tax over the past month, Amazon halted construction on its expanding headquarters in South Lake Union.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government; News/Current Events; US: Washington
KEYWORDS: amazon; demagogicparty; headtax; homeless; housing; jeffbezos; kshamasawant; seattle; tax; washington
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1 posted on 05/14/2018 6:24:05 PM PDT by jeannineinsd
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To: jeannineinsd

I love it when Leftists eat their own.

It’s a joy to watch.

L


2 posted on 05/14/2018 6:26:20 PM PDT by Lurker (President Trump isn't our last chance. President Trump is THEIR last chance.)
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To: jeannineinsd
"The city does not have a revenue problem — it has a spending efficiency problem."
3 posted on 05/14/2018 6:27:13 PM PDT by NonValueAdded (#DeplorableMe #BitterClinger #HillNO! #cishet #MyPresident #MAGA #Winning #covfefe)
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To: jeannineinsd
The city does not have a revenue problem — it has a spending efficiency problem.

Watch it! Budding conservatism at Amazon.

4 posted on 05/14/2018 6:27:49 PM PDT by Publius
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To: jeannineinsd

Tell them to come to Jacksonville! We love business here.

What does Seattle plan to live on?


5 posted on 05/14/2018 6:28:47 PM PDT by livius
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To: Lurker

And yet Amazon wades in.

Fair enough. May both sides suffer their stupidity.


6 posted on 05/14/2018 6:28:59 PM PDT by Fightin Whitey
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To: Lurker

Just simple logic: the more money you spend on the homeless, the more homeless there will be. Where ever the most benefits are, the more homeless there will be. The bums move to the towns with the best benefits.


7 posted on 05/14/2018 6:33:31 PM PDT by Trumpet 1 (US Constitution is my guide.)
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To: jeannineinsd
For those of us who have followed Seattle's wasted tax dollars (hundreds of millions $$) on the homeless, they do have a spending problem. There's much corruption and no fiscal responsibility or accounting for where the money has gone.

Lots of the council members are getting rich off this scheme, as are their homeless-industrial complex accomplices.

It's democrat corruption at the highest levels.

8 posted on 05/14/2018 6:37:46 PM PDT by PROCON
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To: jeannineinsd

If amazon wants to solve their problem with Seattle, how about they just BUY Seattle outright? Or at least all of downtown.

It has some nice parts, mixed with some real shithole parts, and has a persistent socialist-democrat infestation, but some fumigation and the rules that only a company town can enforce would clean that right up.

The alternative is Seattle can become windowstown, googleville, hipster heights, or socialist slums on the sound.


9 posted on 05/14/2018 6:39:45 PM PDT by factoryrat (We are the producers, the creators. Grow it, mine it, build it. MAGA!)
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To: Trumpet 1

Knoxville gets all the homeless in a 20 county area, it seems.


10 posted on 05/14/2018 6:40:26 PM PDT by Tennessean4Bush (An optimist believes we live in the best of all possible worlds. A pessimist fears this is true.)
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To: Trumpet 1

I say we Freepers need to help the cause. Hand out leaflets with directions and free services in assisting they get to Seattle to every homeless person you come across.

Hell, hand em out at homeless shelters in an urban area near you.


11 posted on 05/14/2018 6:45:01 PM PDT by VRWCarea51 (The Original 1998 Version)
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To: jeannineinsd

Lie down with dogs...


12 posted on 05/14/2018 6:46:42 PM PDT by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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To: jeannineinsd

Yeah, Bezos and his ilk love to promote rampant liberalism everywhere and then whine when the illogic of liberalism bites them in the butt. I have zero sympathy.


13 posted on 05/14/2018 6:53:31 PM PDT by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: jeannineinsd

It just amazes me how economically stupid politicians can be. This head tax is similar to the Exit Tax ex-Gov Celeste tried in Ohio. This was during a period when businesses were fleeing the unions in the North for non-union labor markets in the South. Ohio passed an Exit Tax that, in effect, made companies that closed in Ohio leave a tax payment equal to six months’ wages of those who were employed by the exiting company. They sold the idea to the public by saying the money would be used for retraining.

Turns out, retraining was the least of their problems. Ohio quickly noticed that there were no new jobs nor new business formations in Ohio. Imagine that! To their credit, they saw the error of their ways and rescinded the tax. Perhaps Seattle will come to its senses before the same thing happens to them.

Idiots...


14 posted on 05/14/2018 6:53:35 PM PDT by econjack
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To: VRWCarea51
Hand out leaflets with directions and free services in assisting they get to Seattle to every homeless person you come across.

Better yet, every city should give every homeless person a one way bus ticket to Seattle and $20

15 posted on 05/14/2018 6:56:28 PM PDT by FatherofFive (Islam is EVIL and needs to be eradicated)
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To: jeannineinsd

The city does not have a revenue problem — it has a spending efficiency problem.

...

It has a Democrat problem, the same political affiliation as Bezos.


16 posted on 05/14/2018 6:58:25 PM PDT by Moonman62 (Give a man a fish and he'll be a Democrat. Teach a man to fish and he'll be a responsible citizen.)
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To: jeannineinsd

Here’s betting that the Seattle homeless will be the best dressed and fed before the next round of the tax is passed because of impending budget shortfalls.


17 posted on 05/14/2018 7:02:17 PM PDT by RetiredTexasVet (Start using cash and checks or the elite class and bankers will make "cashless" the norm.)
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To: FatherofFive

I point every homeless and derelict west to san fran, Seattle, and California in general.


18 posted on 05/14/2018 7:02:31 PM PDT by Chickensoup (Leftists today are speaking as if they plan to commence to commit genocide against conservatives.)
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To: Fightin Whitey

If Bezos thinks that is the end of that tax and it won’t increase, it would support my theory that he made his money from luck and the people around him, not skill or drive.

Having a small tax is like having a little bit of cancer.


19 posted on 05/14/2018 7:11:59 PM PDT by The Antiyuppie ("When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day")
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To: The Antiyuppie

[If Bezos thinks that is the end of that tax and it won’t increase, it would support my theory that he made his money from luck and the people around him, not skill or drive.

Having a small tax is like having a little bit of cancer.]

Exactly, now every fiscal year it will be how much do they raise it. The foot is in the door.


20 posted on 05/14/2018 7:21:25 PM PDT by headstamp 2 (My "White Privilege" is my work ethic.)
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