Activists to Camp Out at City Hall to Support Head Tax for Homeless Services

Interim Council Member Kirsten Harris-Talley is one of three co-sponsors of the head tax proposal to fund housing and homelessness services. City of Seattle

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In hopes of building support for a proposal to tax big businesses and fund homelessness services, activists plan to camp inside and outside City Hall Wednesday night.

The next morning, November 2, will mark the two year anniversary of Seattle's state of emergency on homelessness. At last count, nearly 12,000 people are experiencing homelessness in King County. About 8,500 of those are in Seattle with 3,857 sleeping on the streets, in tents, and in vehicles.

The activists, part of the Housing for All coalition, have called on Seattle City Council members to support the tax proposal and a separate proposal to stop sweeps of many homeless encampments.

The tax would charge businesses that gross more than $5 million $100 per employee per year. Those funds would go toward affordable housing, shelter, and support for people living in vehicles. In recent years, the city has increased its spending on homelessness services but the population of people experiencing homelessness has grown as well. And with a limited supply of affordable and supportive housing, the city's shelter system faces bottlenecks.

The Housing for All coalition (which includes groups like the Transit Riders Union, Neighborhood Action Coalition, SHARE, Nickelsville, and Real Change) says it will be "collecting supplies for houseless and unsheltered neighbors, conducting teach-ins and drawing attention to the ongoing Homelessness State of Emergency" during the campout.

The tax proposal is sponsored by Council Members Kirsten Harris-Talley, Mike O'Brien, and Kshama Sawant but the left bloc of the council is struggling to build a majority in support. In a budget committee meeting this week, Council Members Rob Johnson, Debora Juarez, and Sally Bagshaw were skeptical, saying they prefer to find more money for homelessness somewhere else in the budget. Council Member Lorena González agreed later at a candidate forum, saying she doesn't support the proposal as currently drafted because she worries it will hit small businesses. (Both mayoral candidates have said the same thing.) That's three in favor, four opposed, and two—Council Members Lisa Herbold and Bruce Harrell—who have not yet said where they stand.

Bagshaw urged her colleagues to bring business interests into the discussion about the tax. In response, Harris-Talley called that a "disingenuous conversation," citing increased property taxes like the 2016 housing levy.

"At the heart of it, it's asking every day people in Seattle to keep giving and keep giving," Harris-Talley said, "and for the folks at the top of the heap to be excused from having to even think about it and I think that's really unfair."

O'Brien has been making the rounds in support of the proposal. He says the tax will hit only the 2,200 largest businesses in the city. Each of those businesses would pay $100 per employee per year.

"I will agree with anyone who wants to argue that it's not a perfect tax," he said on today's episode of the Seattle Times' politics podcast. "Frankly, none of our taxes are a perfect tax. I think an income tax is a much fairer way to tax both individuals and and businesses. I talked to some of the business representatives and said I'm happy to walk arm in arm with you down to Olympia and ask for a corporate income tax and they declined that offer. So, we're left with a tax on gross receipts."

"I know that there are companies that gross $10 million that aren't profitable at all—they're losing money," O'Brien added. "This tax would impact them, that's true. But I don't think this is the difference between success and failure for those businesses."

We'll get a sign of where Herbold, currently serving as budget chair, stands on Tuesday. That's when she'll release the so-called "balancing package," which will include some of council members' proposed budget changes. Wednesday night, the city council will hold a public hearing on the budget. The following week, the council will discuss changes to the budget. They'll vote on the final budget in mid-November.