Amazon Doesn't Want to Pay Tax That Would Create Low Income Housing in Seattle
Source: Think Progress
- Amazon Puts 7,000 Jobs on Hold Because of a Tax That Would Help Seattle Homeless Population. Amazon contributed to the housing crisis in Seattle, and now it doesn't want to do anything about it.
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has more money than he knows what do deal with. While visiting Germany in late April to pick up the Axel Springer Award for innovation, Bezos gave an exclusive interview to Business Insider about how it feels to be the richest man in the world. Bezos, who has a net worth of $130.8 billion, told the outlet that the only logical way to spend his money is by funding space tourism through his spaceflight company, Blue Origin. "The only way that I can see to deploy this much financial resource is by converting my Amazon winnings into space travel. That is basically it,” Bezos said.
What Bezos does not want to spend money on at all is helping the homeless population in the city where his company is located. On Wednesday, Amazon announced the company would halt the construction of a new building in downtown Seattle it was planning to build, jeopardizing some 7,000 jobs. Why? Because the company opposes a tax being considered by the City Council.
<A large number of Amazon workers rely on food stamps for assistance.>
The tax targets 500-600 businesses in the city that gross at least $20 million a year. The companies would be charged a “head tax” at $500 per employee. In 2021, the head tax would be replaced by a 0.7 percent payroll tax. The payroll tax would windup costing Amazon more than the initial head tax, considering Seattle Amazon employees are paid about an average of $110,000 per year, according to data from job-reviews site Glassdoor.
“I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head-tax vote by City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18 project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sub-lease all space in our recently leased Rainer Square building,” a spokesperson for Amazon told The Seattle Times. The city council is expected to vote on the tax on May 14.
The city estimates the tax would raise an estimated $75 million annually, with Amazon paying roughly $20 million in 2019 and 2020. One might think for a company that pulled in $1.6 billion last quarter, they could afford to help out the city of Seattle and its most vulnerable residents, especially considering the extent to which Amazon’s presence in the city has exacerbated the housing crisis there.
Since 2010, when Amazon opened its first headquarters in the South Lake Union area of Seattle, housing costs have skyrocketed. The median cost of a single-family home has more than doubled to $820,000, and rents have increased 64 percent, according to the Seattle Times. The average two-bedroom home in Seattle costs more than $2,000 per month. Only a third of condominiums in Seattle are priced below $500,000.
Read more: https://thinkprogress.org/amazon-doesnt-want-to-pay-tax-that-would-create-low-income-housing-in-seattle-80f7177dfab4/
Pub. May 3, 2018, 3:06 PM
= new reply since forum marked as read
Town & Country, "Jeff Bezos is Renovating the Biggest House in Washington, DC," April 24, 2018.
The mansion was built in 1912 by architect John Russell Pope. It was was the former Textile Museum. The property is located at 2320 S St. NW, in the Kalorama neighborhood where the Obamas and other prominent residents live off Mass. Ave., near Embassy Row.
Plans for *25 Bathrooms are raising questions; 10 Bedrooms, 27,000 sq. ft., $23 Mill. purchase.
https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/real-estate/news/a9234/jeff-bezos-house-washington-dc/
Gilded Age, Part II
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2014/05/08/thomas-piketty-new-gilded-age/
and Welcome to the Democratic Underground alwaysinasnit!!! 
again and glad to know you are here!
A sickening creature with a sickening company.
I hope it rots in hell!
BOYCOTT amazon.com as they truly suck!