I’m not sure where Talton gets his confidence.
As I’ve written before, I think some job shifting could occur, but the risk is relatively small and greatly outweighed by the measure’s benefits. This time, vague scaremongering aside, the corporations that will pay the Jumpstart tax didn’t even threaten to leave. Remember when The Seattle Times editorial board spent three years forecasting economic doom and gloom from $15 minimum wage laws in SeaTac and Seattle? At least back then there were many businesses crying that the sky would fall if they had to pay workers more. Talton simply asserts, unencumbered by evidence, that Seattle will be the loser because employers will take their high-paying jobs elsewhere. ( Disclosure: I and the organization I work for, the Transit Riders Union, were involved in advocating for a Seattle big business tax.)īut never mind all that. Seattle’s tax was designed to “jumpstart” a recovery - it targets those companies that can most afford to pay, and a good chunk of the revenue goes to small businesses and lower-income households that will likely put any spare dollars right back into circulation. As reality-based economists learned from the experience of the Great Recession, austerity causes harm and slows recovery. Without it, right now we’d be staring down severe public sector layoffs and cuts to city services. Talton slams Seattle’s new big business tax, calling it “a pipe dream and a dangerous impediment to the city’s economy.” But the truly dangerous impediment would be not having this new source of revenue, which single-handedly saved the city’s 2021 budget from being a total bloodbath. But no serious observer could continue believing that Amazon’s search was motivated by hurt feelings.įast forward to this year. How could a company growing at such a rate not need another home base? All plausible, maybe all true. But after the dust settled - with Amazon still expanding in Seattle, mind you - better analysis prevailed. Sure, early on there was some tendentious hand-wringing about Seattle’s progressive politics and supposed ingratitude toward our corporate overlord, especially from politicians and chamber types. Much ink has been spilled over Amazon’s HQ2 search and the reasons behind it. My sloppy thinking detector was beeping all the way through, but here’s where it really went off: “But the anger of activists and many council members toward Amazon propelled the company to seek a ‘full, equal’ second headquarters elsewhere.” We need a new mayor who can get Seattle back on track. Now our city council, tough on business and soft on crime, is strangling the goose that laid the golden egg. “Seattle was always a business city,” he wrote. Last Friday, Seattle Times columnist Jon Talton wrapped up Seattle’s story with a neat little holiday bow. Best to take a spoonful or two now to inoculate yourself against what’s coming. In other words, we’re about to be served up a lot of sloppy economic thinking.
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