Source:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...ttle-over-tax-to-stem-homelessness/ar-AAx5qKB
more at source.
But this begs the question once again what can cities do about homelessness and sadly with these larger companies they are driving up home prices like crazy its trash amazon is going that far to stop a tax that would help people and slow down a crisis here.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/com...ttle-over-tax-to-stem-homelessness/ar-AAx5qKB
A showdown is looming in Seattle, where the city council plans to take an initial vote Friday on a tax on big businesses that would address an escalating crisis in homelessness but has widened fissures between the city and its largest employer: Amazon.com.
Amazon halted construction plans on a development site in the northern end of the city and vowed that it would forgo additional space it recently leased if the council approves the tax, which is intended to raise $75 million a year.
Hundreds of other companies in Seattle, including Starbucks and Expedia, have also expressed opposition to the proposal. But it is Amazon's hardball tactics that have caught the attention of city council members and the national media covering the debate.
Amazon is in the midst of a high-profile search for a second headquarters in one of 20 other cities. And the dispute playing out in Seattle is being closely followed by elected officials who would have to wrestle with Amazon's growth if the retailing giant landed in their back yard.
Seattle and surrounding King County declared a state of emergency over homelessness in 2015, but since then, cost-of-living pressures have worsened. The number of homeless students in the city's public schools has tripled, to nearly 4,300 last school year, and an estimated 23,000 Seattle households are at risk because more than half of their incomes go toward housing costs.
For the past year and a half, home prices have risen faster there than anywhere else in the country. The median price for a house is now $777,000.
How much to attribute the problem to the growth of Amazon, Microsoft, Google and other tech firms that have transformed the city from a sleepy Northwest outpost to a booming extension of Silicon Valley is a matter of sharp disagreement.
"We are reeling under skyrocketing rents and an acute crisis in the availability of affordable housing," said Seattle council member Kshama Sawant, who supports the measure.
more at source.
But this begs the question once again what can cities do about homelessness and sadly with these larger companies they are driving up home prices like crazy its trash amazon is going that far to stop a tax that would help people and slow down a crisis here.