![]() ![]() Separating the Business Candidates from the Less Business Candidatesīusiness interest planted its flag in the far edge of the sandbox, which will give clueless business candidates running for City Council a better idea of what policies they should promote. As a powerful lobby, business and real estate interests will likely influence those conversations. The letter also asked the City not to establish transportation impact fees or building emissions performance standards, ideas the council is currently toying with. ![]() In an email to The Stranger, Smith said she’s focused on “how we use the City’s current revenues” and “budgeting practices.” Sounds a lot like putting JumpStart into the general fund and looking for inefficiencies to avoid more taxes. Again, while that’s good for profits, Wilson said that proposal also sucks because it would cut funding to JumpStart’s intended targets, including affordable housing, Green New Deal investments, and small business development. By starting out so anti-tax, business interest can try to force a “compromise” that would funnel JumpStart revenue into the general fund to make up for the shortfall instead of raising new progressive revenue, Wilson speculated. Katie Wilson, General Secretary of the Transit Riders Union and work group member, called the proposal “bad policy.” It's so obviously bad that Wilson chalks it up to a “disappointing political move,” to stake out an extreme bargaining position for when the task force releases its recommendations and the real decision-making starts later this spring. The letter could be a hit to that initial optimism. The cooperation felt like a good omen after the sector refused a seat on the 2018 progressive revenue task force and eventually hammered in the nail on the head tax’s coffin. When the task force initially started the discussion, Mosqueda and others expressed relief to have business on board. The Mayor’s Office and Mosqueda designed the work group, which convened in October, to find new progressive revenue streams to make up for a huge budget shortfall and avoid a future of total austerity. The chamber’s CEO and weird letter signatory Rachel Smith currently sits on the Progressive Revenue Stabilization Work Group. Business Doin’ BusinessĮven with Mosqueda defending the taxes, the suggestion could point to trouble for the future of progressive revenue. After all, local governments that increased government spending during the 2008 Great Recession saw “ swifter economic recoveries and lower unemployment,” she said. Mosqueda does not think now is the time to raise less and spend less money. As Mosqueda said in an email to The Stranger, the City could pay for the entire annual Police Budget with that money. The City forecasted B&O will bring in $335 million in 2023. That would all be lost under the proposed holiday.Īdditionally, B&O taxes account for 21% of the total general fund revenue. The City projects JumpStart will raise $290 million in 2023 and $311 million in 2024. ![]()
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