On July 1st, the Seattle City Council Budget Committee voted 7-2 in favor of a tax on Amazon and other big businesses in the city.

Formally called ‘JumpStart Seattle’, this legislation’s passage represents a major victory for the working class. Dozens of labor unions, community organizations, and religious groups under the leadership of Socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant endorsed the tax, while only a small handful of businesses sent in letters to the council opposing the tax.

Not all lawmakers were in favor, however, with City Councilmembers Alex Pedersen and Debora Juarez voting against the new tax. Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan also vowed she would attempt to veto the legislation. However, her veto can be overturned by 6 councilmember votes.

Similar legislation was passed in 2018. However it was repealed less than one month later due to heavy pressure and threats from Amazon, in conjunction the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. That legislation determined a company’s tax bracket by number of employees, while the new legislation will account for the income of a businesses’ employees. This allows the tax to target businesses with higher income employees, such as Amazon and other major corporations.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, exact payroll data is inaccurate in estimating how much the new tax will raise for the city due to current widespread unemployment in the COVID caused economic downturn, but based on available data economic analysts believe it could generate at least $214 million in 2021 alone. The City Council Budget Committee is scheduled to consider delegating those funds to COVID-19 relief programs and the construction of affordable housing.
The campaign led by Councilmember Sawant is part of a years-long struggle to improve Seattle’s regressive tax code, which is primarily based off of property and sales taxes that overwhelmingly hurt the working and poor people of Seattle.

Following the vote, Councilmember Sawant said “what is won, or not won, in the Seattle City Council is based entirely on the strength of our movements – on the balance of power between the working class and the ruling class. Our Tax Amazon movement was strong enough to defeat Jeff Bezos, but not [yet] strong enough to stop all the corporate loopholes”[1].

This is by no means the end of class struggle in the State of Washington or the City of Seattle, but it certainly is a noteworthy victory – one which the working class can use as a springboard to propel our struggle to a new, more developed stage.

Sources:

[1] ”Historic Tax Amazon Victory in Seattle!” – https://www.socialistalternative.org/2020/07/02/historic-tax-amazon-victory-in-seattle/