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Just weeks after passing a new tax on big businesses, Seattle political leaders signaled late Monday they would reverse course and repeal it. Mayor Jenny Durkan and city council President Bruce Harrell said in statements that they would end the tax, initially meant to combat rising homelessness in a city where housing prices have soared. “We heard you,” Durkan and seven of the nine city council members said in a statement. “This week, the City Council is moving forward with the consideration of legislation to repeal the current tax on large businesses to address the homelessness crisis.” Business groups, led...

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan and city council members on Monday said they would consider legislation to repeal a “head tax” on the city’s large businesses, just weeks after the measure’s passage drew public criticism from Amazon, Starbucks and others. [SNIP] Amazon vice president and spokesman Drew Herdener said last month that the bill’s passage forced the company “to question our growth” in Seattle. "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," Herdener said at...

The Seattle Times reports that the city’s mayor is quietly trying to clean up homeless encampments and has so far collected 42,000 pounds of trash in just three weeks. But it seems efforts to break up vehicular encampments (people living in cars) are going about as well as could be expected: The program, which quietly started in mid-May, has resulted in the collection of almost 42,000 pounds of garbage and waste from cleanups around RVs and other vehicles parked in Sodo, Georgetown, Ballard and the Central District.But in the meantime, residents of these vans and RVs continue to play...

A former officer with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested over the weekend for allegedly trying to spy on the United States for China, the Justice Department said on Monday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation took Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, into custody on Saturday while he was on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to get a connecting flight to China. The department said he has been accused of trying to transmit national defense information to China and with receiving "hundreds of thousands of dollars" while acting illegally as an agent for the Chinese government.

In the wake of Seattle’s decision to enact an Employee Head Tax (EHT) to fight homelessness, media reporting has largely focused on the backlash from large businesses such as Amazon. It’s not hard to see why. Amazon, which employs more than 10 percent of the city’s workforce, has suspended planned investments in protest, and more than 100 leaders of large businesses operating in the city signed an open letter opposing the tax increase. But local residents tired of Seattle’s stagnant economic situation are beginning to take action against the EHT as well. It is truly difficult to imagine a worse...

SEATTLE – Amazon, Starbucks, Vulcan and other companies have pledged a total of more than $350,000 toward an effort to repeal Seattle's newly passed tax on large employers intended to combat homelessness. Just days after the Seattle City Council approved the levy, the No Tax On Jobs campaign, a coalition of businesses, announced it would gather signatures to

Seattle’s mayor on Thursday unveiled a proposal to fine gun owners $500 to $10,000 for failing to lock up their firearms. The legislation, drafted by Mayor Jenny Durkan and Councilmember M. Lorena González, follows recent deadly school shootings in Florida, Texas and other locations. The bill was forwarded to Seattle's City Council for consideration, the Seattle Times reported. In 2016, Washington state enacted an "extreme risk" gun law that has allowed Seattle police officers to confiscate 43 weapons from citizens, the Times reported. The gun-control movement in Washington state has been aided by former Microsoft executive and NFL team owner...

MOUNTAIN VIEW — Plans for a “Google headcount tax” moved ahead Wednesday in Mountain View after a municipal panel recommended that the full city council approve the proposal. A three-member subcommittee of the Mountain View City Council endorsed the concept on Wednesday of a tax on the number of workers a company employs within the city limits, although government officials refer to it formally as a “restructuring” of the business license tax. The Mountain View City Council is scheduled to meet June 5 to make a final decision on whether it will order the city staff to prepare a ballot...

EATTLE -- People who own a home in King County are paying about 17% more in property taxes this year than last year to help pay for the state’s funding of public education. But come November, Seattle leaders will be asking voters to approve a bit more of an increase for city dwellers. City Council members say while the state funding property tax hike pays for basic education, the levy they want to be renewed will be an extra investment to ensure that kids from preschool to high school will have what it takes to succeed.

Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers owner, Paul Allen, is pushing a Washington State gun control initiative in response to the May 18 Santa Fe High School shooting. The initiative, No. 1639, is called “Safe Schools, Safe Communities,” and it expands the gun controls placed on law-abiding citizens via the universal background check initiative that passed in 2014. Allen tweeted: Paul Allen ✔ @PaulGAllen 18h My statement on a gun safety initiative in my home state of Washington: Initiative 1639 is a reasonable and necessary measure that will improve the safety of our schools and our communities, which is why...

Bruce Kendall said Monday his phone at the Economic Development Board for Tacoma-Pierce County has been ringing steadily since last week's vote by the Seattle City Council to tax big businesses $275 per employee. "I've received inquiries over the last week from companies that have indicated they are exploring options for locations in Pierce County," Kendall said. "And they are telling me that's why they are calling me, because the head tax passed. Now companies have another reason to call: A $275 tax credit per employee for new, family-wage jobs. "Note the value, it's not random," tweeted state Rep. J.T....

In a shortsighted effort to fight homelessness, Seattle’s city council has approved a new employee “head tax” on companies based in the city. The policy pits growth and progress against each other in a zero-sum game that will do far more harm than good. The head tax is exactly what it sounds like: a straight levy of $0.14 per hour per employee—about $275 a year for a full-time worker—targeting every business in Seattle with revenues of $20 million or more. The proposal’s backers aim to raise around $48 million per year to fund various affordable housing initiatives in order to...

On Tuesday, I wrote about the spike in homelessness on the West Coast and the insurmountable problem politicians face in tackling this troubling issue. There is no clear cut solution, but something needs to be done. California has an astonishing 24 percent of the country’s homeless population. More than 10 cities and counties along the West Coast have declared states of emergency due to the rise of homelessness. Seattle, Washington was one of them. The socialists on Seattle’s City Council passed a head tax on big companies like Amazon and Starbucks to address the homeless crisis. By Legacy Research The...

Is Jeff Bezos having second thoughts about his political ideology and that of his newspaper? The founder of Amazon and owner of the Washington Post – and the richest man in the world at the current Amazon stock price – is being targeted by leftists because he has been so successful. Not for any alleged misbehavior, but simply because he and his company Amazon (not the WaPo) have so much money. Yesterday, Bernie Sanders attacked him by name, noting that the three richest men in America have as much wealth as the bottom half. Apparently, he believe that if they...

With all the controversy surrounding the proposed “head tax” in Seattle, KIRO 7 wanted to know how much support there is for the plan. We teamed up with Strategies 360 to conduct an exclusive scientific poll on the tax and whether you trust the city to properly spend the money it will raise. Below are the results, which were first shown on KIRO 7 Morning News. On behalf of KIRO-TV, Strategies 360 conducted a live telephone survey of 400 registered voters in the city of Seattle, WA. Interviews were conducted May 11-13, 2018. A combination of landline and mobile phones...

SEATTLE -- Amazon is flexing its muscles making its opposition known to a proposed Seattle tax by bringing a halt to all planning on a massive project scheduled for construction in Downtown Seattle, and may tweak its plans to occupy a new downtown skyscraper. “I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head tax vote by City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18 project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sub-lease all space in our recently leased Rainier Square building," says Amazon Vice President Drew Herdener. The proposed "head tax" would apply...

The Seattle city council just voted 9-0 on an expansive tax that would seek to tax the city’s businesses that make over 20 million dollars a year in gross revenues. An earlier proposal that passed last week would have taxed businesses around $500 per employee per year. That measure — which passed 5-4 — Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan threatened to veto if it reached her desk.

The nation’s largest home builder is betting voice-activated digital assistants and smart devices will become as expected in a new home as garages now are. Lennar announced Wednesday that standard features in its new homes will include built-in Wi-Fi, smart locks, doorbells, thermostats and lights — all controlled by Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated digital assistant. Each house will come with two Alexa-enabled smart speakers, an Echo Show and an Echo Dot. New homeowners will also get a free visit from an Amazon technician to help set everything up and teach them how to use it. ... The 3,600-square-foot model home in...

Amazon wants to show you how much you can rely on its Alexa voice assistant to control everything in your home, from thermostats to TVs. The company announced Wednesday it's partnering with homebuilder Lennar to create "Amazon Experience Centers" — model homes containing built-in Alexa-controlled appliances — in hopes of persuading homeowners and homebuyers to embed Amazon services into their houses

Seattle is worried about the well-being of the poor and mentally ill people living there, so it's going to drive businesses out of town. OK, that's not how the politicians describe their plan, but that's probably how it will work out. Members of Seattle's city council want all big Seattle businesses to pay a tax of $500 per employee. In response, Amazon stopped building a new complex. Construction workers joined Amazon in protesting the new tax. On the other side are city council members like Kshama Sawant. She and members of her political party, Socialist Alternative, demonstrated in support of...