Demand Seattle City Councilmembers keep promises against new taxes
November 18, 2024
Seattle voters must remind councilmembers to keep their campaign promises and not cave into the demands of greedy special interest groups which benefit from higher taxes. Moreover, councilmembers should listen to 68% of Seattle voters who support budget cuts over imposing more taxes which increase the cost of living and doing business in the city.
Your action is needed as councilmembers are expected to decide in budget committee on Tuesday (November 19) and full council on Thursday (November 21) whether or not to impose a job-killing 2% income tax on capital gains.
In 2023 six new councilmembers joined new Council President Sara Nelson to provide a new direction for the Seattle City Council. Nearly all the new members promised the voters they would reverse the extreme public safety and tax policies which caused skyrocketing crime rates and forced many businesses to close operations in the city.
But now that Mayor Bruce Harrell has finally released his plan to bring businesses (and their tax revenues) back to Downtown Seattle, there is serious talk on the council to initiate a controversial new tax (that will undoubtedly be challenged in court due to the recently passed citizen’s initiative by the legislature earlier this year) that will encourage employers to look elsewhere to operate their business.
The previous extreme city council, led by councilmembers Kshama Sawant, Lisa Herbold, and Andrew Lewis, left behind an irresponsible, record-breaking half billion-dollar deficit for the new more moderate councilmembers fix.
During the current budget process, media reports indicated that the council was planning to balance the budget without raising taxes. Yet as proposed budget cuts were discussed, the wealthy special interest groups (primarily government workers’ unions) began waging expensive PR campaigns to pressure councilmembers to keep their pork projects in the budget.
As is nearly always the case, the needs of these special interest groups go against the wishes of the average Seattle resident. To pass this latest job-killing capital gains tax the councilmembers must go against the wishes of 2/3 of Seattle voters. A recently released survey found that an overwhelming 68% wanted councilmembers to “reprioritize within existing means” while only 31% want to “raise taxes to reduce deficit.”
Remember, the city budget has exploded in the past decade as radical city councils passed numerous taxes (to fund more government expansion) which significantly raised the cost of living in Seattle and drove many employers to move their jobs to other cities.
The 2015 budget was just over $4 billion. The proposed 2025 budget has more than doubled to $8.3 billion. This 108% increase in the City of Seattle’s budget is unprecedented in the city’s history.
Simply put, the city has more than enough tax revenue to pay for necessary (and many unnecessary) government services, the council needs to do their job and prioritize city expenses.
Budget experts are leery of the proposed tax for two additional reasons:
- Because it is not known how many taxpayers will move assets out of Seattle to avoid the tax, revenue estimates vary wildly between $16 million to $51 million.
- Due to the 2024 legislature passing Let’s Go Washington’s citizen Initiative 2111 to ban any local income tax, this levy on capital gains income will likely force the city to defend an expensive court challenge.
Your action is needed as the wealthy special interest groups will try to intimidate councilmembers to raise your taxes by packing the council chambers with vocal protestors.
Please take the time to notify councilmembers that you are watching their vote (ChangeWA will inform you how your councilmembers voted). Tell them that:
- Voters expect councilmembers to keep campaign promise to not raise taxes
- The tax will increase cost of living and doing business in Seattle
- More employers will move their jobs (and all tax revenues) out of the city
- The city’s budget has increased more than 100% in a decade, there is enough tax revenue to fund city services
- Revenue experts have no idea how much revenue this highly unpredictable tax will bring in
