Don’t believe the hype that “Amazon killed the Seattle head tax,” the new levy that the city recently passed on businesses to fund an affordable-housing initiative. The truth behind the city council’s stunning reversal—repealing the tax by a 7-2 vote, just four weeks after passing it 9-0—is that Seattle citizens have erupted in frustration against the city’s tax-and-spend political class that has failed to address the homelessness crisis, despite record new revenues.
As recently as a few years ago, it seemed as if Seattle voters largely viewed our hyper-progressive city council as a harmless oddity in an otherwise tolerant, thriving, liberal city. But times have changed...
While Amazon has grabbed all the headlines, this battle touches on an even deeper paradox of political life in Seattle: we have created one of the most dynamic, innovative, upwardly mobile cities in the nation—a testament to the power of our unique brand of compassionate capitalism—yet we have also spawned a hardcore socialist contingent that wants to tear it all down.
Fortunately, the head tax fight has revealed that some of the core constituencies of the progressive coalition—affluent liberal neighbors, labor unions, and blue-collar workers—are starting to turn against the politics of the far Left....
After years of skyrocketing local taxes and failing public programs, Seattle voters have begun to understand that taxes alone don’t solve problems; what’s needed is strong leadership and sensible public policy. The evidence against the city council’s approach to homelessness is piling up on every street corner and public sidewalk in the city: out-of-control street camping, thousands of discarded hypodermic needles, and property crime rates four times higher than New York City....
There’s a limit to progressivism, even in America’s most progressive city. The backlash is coming.
