For over a year the Transit Riders Union has been advocating for an Employee Hours Tax for transit, and most of the Seattle City Councilmembers have affirmed their support for this progressive funding option – but we need your help to urge them to act! Please sign our petition in support of the Employee Hours Tax. If you enter your email address and/or phone number, we will keep you updated on this campaign. Scroll down for more information about the EHT, or read more here.
What is the Employee Hours Tax (EHT)?
- The EHT is a small tax on business, based on the number of employees.
- Small businesses would be exempt.
- An EHT of $50 per full-time employee per year would cost businesses less than three cents per hour, and it would raise nearly $20 million annually in Seattle.
What could be done with $20 million?
- Seattle could accelerate the build-out of a Bus Rapid Transit system, to greatly improve the speed and reliability of bus transportation in the city.
- Seattle could fund free bus pass programs for low-income youth, seniors and people with disabilities.
Why should business contribute to our public transit system?
- Businesses rely on public transit too, to get their workers to work, and to ease congestion so that the wheels of commerce can turn.
- Right now our public transit system is funded through sales tax, car tab fees, property taxes and fares. These regressive taxes and fees hit working and poor people the hardest.
- The EHT will make our transit tax structure more progressive and equitable. It’s high time big businesses pitched in, too.