Tax happy politicians—and voters—in Seattle have managed to make the city unaffordable to the poor and lower middle class. Ironically, that’s exactly what they, supposedly, wanted to avoid.
KIRO’s Jason Rantz recently wrote that many Seattle residents now face tax increases of “about to pay $250 more a year over the next three years after voters passed sales increases for Metro buses and property tax increases for preschool education. That, on top of the tax hike for parks.”
Making matters worse, more tax hikes are on the horizon. A constant string of “proposals keep getting pushed to raise taxes on business (from parking taxes to linkage fees and everything in between).” Rantz points out that Murray recently said, “I think it’s important to remember that Seattle[…] does not have one of the highest tax burdens.” As Dori Monson put it, Murray is essentially saying that “We’re not yet one of the highest tax burden cities. Until we achieve that, there’s still going to be room to kick up the taxes.”
If the Democrats who run the city are truly concerned about the poor and middle class in Seattle, they sure have a funny way of showing it.
