Seattle businesses were given a stark message after the passage of this week’s controversial “head tax” passed along a 9-0 city council vote: “We’ll be back for more!”
Amazon, Starbucks, Apple and other large companies are now subject to a $275 “head tax” per full-time employee in the city, but activists made it clear on Monday that they haven’t been satiated. A local NBC affiliate captured residents chanting for more than one economic pound of flesh.
“We’ll be back for more!” citizens yelled, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“Seattle just told the world that if you bring jobs to Seattle, the tax and spenders in the city will tax them,” Americans for Tax Reform president Grover Norquist said in a statement. “A little now. More later. Better to invest in a different city, perhaps a different state.”
The new tax targets companies grossing more than $20 million per year and works out to roughly 14 cents per full-time employ per hour worked.
Drew Herdener, Amazon vice president, recently released a statement arguing, “[Seattle] does not have a revenue problem — it has a spending efficiency problem.”
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• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
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