This month the Seattle City Council, acting as a Transportation Benefit District, will be voting on a proposal to prevent cuts to Seattle’s Metro service. Mayor Murray has proposed “Prop 1 for Seattle” – but whereas the county had no better options, Seattle does. Councilmembers Sawant and Licata are putting forward an amendment to make the Mayor’s proposal more progressive.  The vote may take place as early as this Thursday.

Please come to City Hall council chambers this Thursday to show support for transit and speak out for this amendment – and if you can’t make it, please email the councilmembers.

2:00 PM, Thursday, July 10
Transportation Benefit District Meeting
Seattle City Hall, Council Chambers
600 4th Avenue

Please email and call your elected representatives and urge them to support Sawant and Licata’s proposal to remove the sales tax increase and replace it with a tax on businesses.

Tom Rasmussen               tom.rasmussen@seattle.gov     206-684-8808

Sally Bagshaw                    sally.bagshaw@seattle.gov         206-684-8801

Tim Burgess                        tim.burgess@seattle.gov             206-684-8806

Sally Clark                            sally.clark@seattle.gov                  206-684-8802

Jean Godden                     jean.godden@seattle.gov           206-684-8807

Bruce Harrell                      bruce.harrell@seattle.gov           206-684-8804

Mike O’Brien                     mike.obrien@seattle.gov            206-684-8800

Why Progressive Funding?

Why replace the 0.1% sales tax with an Employee Hours Tax on business and a Commercial Parking Fee increase?

• The city has a moral obligation to use the least regressive funding mechanisms at its disposal.
• Working and poor people already pay for transit, through fares (which have gone up four times since 2008 and are about to go up again!) and regressive taxes like sales tax and car tab fees. It’s high time business started to pay their fare share for the transit system that makes the economy run.
• The Employee Hours Tax that Sawant and Licata have proposed is not going to break the bank for business! We’re talking about less than $20 per employee per year. A 0.1% sales tax hike would mean the average worker has to pay much more than that over the course of a year.
• The results of Prop 1 seem to suggest that Seattle voters may support the Mayor’s proposal.But this is not a safe bet! There will be several big city tax measures on the ballot this summer and fall, e.g. property tax hikes for the Parks Levy and Universal Pre-K. By November, Seattle voters may have had enough. The Employee Hours Tax on business and the Commercial Parking Fee increase are not only less regressive than sales tax and flat car tab fees, they also have the advantage of being approvable directly by the city council.
• The City of Redmond already has a Business Tax of $92 per employee per year to fund transportation improvements and transit service.
• Portland, Oregon also imposes a transit tax on employers, based on their gross payroll. This makes sense! Small businesses don’t have to pay as much. Big business contributes to the transit system that gets their workers to work.
• If the Transportation Benefit District Board, chooses not to remove the sales tax from the proposal, at the very least the City Council should also enact the Employee Hours Tax and use the revenue to make transit more affordable for low-income Seattle residents, for instance by helping to fund Metro’s new low income fare program.