![]() Government employers, grocery stores, and nonprofit hospitals would be exempt.Ĭompanies would be sorted into three tiers of taxation and would pay between 0.7 percent and 2.4 percent depending on their total payroll. The companies would pay for each employee making $150,000 a year or higher. The tax would charge the 800 wealthiest companies in the City, with payrolls of at least $7 million per year. “Twenty years may sound like a long time for people who are not struggling to get by,” she said. Councilmember Kshama Sawant criticized this amendment, noting that it would end the tax without committing to renewing it. Councilmember Dan Strauss said the 20-year sunset would be a time to reassess the tax and spending plan. ![]() Councilmember Andrew Lewis, who sponsored the amendment to “sunset” the tax in 20 years, said it would allow the City to transition to a regional progressive tax if the County or state passes one. Mosqueda’s initial bill expired after ten years, but the amended version that passed the budget committee last week had this clause removed. ![]() Another adopted amendment passed 5-4, exempted some nonprofit healthcare providers from the tax. The tax will expire after 20 years, the result of an amendment adopted Monday. City Council also passed a spending plan for the tax Monday, and while precise details will be hammered out in future meetings starting July 15, the plan is to fund affordable housing, Green New Deal investments, and community development projects. Starting in 2022, the tax would raise around $214 million per year. In 2021, $86 million will be spent on City services that would otherwise be impacted by the budget shortfalls expected from the pandemic and to continue the COVID-19 relief from 2020. This funding will be borrowed from City reserves and repaid with future tax revenue the next year. The tax goes into effect in 2021 but will pay for immediate COVID-19 relief this year, investing $86 million dollars in housing and homelessness prevention, grants to small businesses and childcare providers, financial assistance for immigrants and refugees, and emergency grocery vouchers. Mosqueda said the tax would help those most impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and address the inequities the pandemic has laid bare. “This is about caring for Seattlites now and into the future,” said Mosqueda after the plan was passed. JumpStart Seattle, the new legislation introduced by Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, will raise four times as much revenue. The 7-2 vote, a margin large enough to override a veto from Mayor Jenny Durkan, comes two years after the City Council passed and then walked back the Employee Hours Tax, or Head Tax, which would have raised $47 million per year for housing and homelessness services. Seattle City Council passed a $214 million big business tax proposal Monday to address the damage of the COVID-19 pandemic, invest in affordable housing, and fund City services.
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