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Seattle Repeals Tax That Upset Amazon (apnews.com)

Last month, the Seattle City Council introduced a new tax that would charge firms $275 per worker a year to fund homelessness outreach services and affordable housing. This greatly upset Amazon, Seattle's biggest private sector employer, which threatened to move jobs out of the city. Today, The Associated Press reports that Seattle leaders have repealed the tax on large companies such as Amazon and Starbucks after they fought the measure. From the report: The City Council voted 7-2 Tuesday to reverse a tax that it unanimously approved just a month ago to help provide services in the city. The Seattle region has one of the highest homelessness numbers in the U.S. Amazon, Starbucks and other businesses sharply criticized the tax as misguided. The online retailer, the city's largest employer, even temporarily halted construction planning on a new high-rise building near its Seattle headquarters in protest. Mayor Jenny Durkan and a majority of the council have said they scrapped the tax to avoid a costly political fight as a coalition of businesses moved to get a referendum overturning the tax on the November ballot.

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  1. Re:Amazon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    No, $250,000,000 - that's $250 MILLION - is an absolute shitload of money. Most local governments in the US do not have even half that much money in their ENTIRE BUDGET.

    It's also several times as much as this "Amazon tax" would have brought in. So if $250,000,000 is nothing, then why are you ranting about a mere $75 million tax?