Who wants to crush a big business tax in Seattle? Turns out, it’s not Seattleites.Â
Next Tuesday, Seattle voters will finish voting on Proposition 1, our first shot at a social housing model. The original proposition—1A on your ballot—proposes a tax on businesses whose employees take home more than $1 million a year. That tax would fund the Seattle Social Housing Developer, which would acquire and build housing that would reliably serve Seattleites who make anywhere from 0 to 120 percent of the Area Median Income (AMI), while guaranteeing that everyone’s rent is 30 percent of their income. (We like this idea and think you should vote for it.)
Unsurprisingly, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce isn’t stoked on a new tax on businesses and raised a campaign against it—1B on your ballot—which would attempt to pull from Jumpstart funds (which are already earmarked for entirely different types of low-income housing) and undermines the funding model that makes this social housing so unique.Â
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