Seattle Social Housing Tax a Rip-Roaring Success

You may recall that last February, Seattle passed an “excess compensation” tax to fund the city’s “social housing developer.” It was a payroll tax of 5% on compensation in excess of $1M, estimated to raise $50 million a year. Remember that this developer is a publicly owned agency that builds mixed-income, climate-friendly housing and keeps the rent stabilized. 

The council refused to put a funding option on the ballot after the agency was created by initiative, so House Our Neighbors rallied the people and got the excess compensation tax on the ballot. The council’s conservative Dems like Sara Nelson, Maritza Rivera and Bob Kettle were adamantly opposed. So they added an “option 1B,” deliberately designed to confuse the voters. It was “pro” social housing, but eliminated the mixed income elements, funded it with only $10 million, and took that $10 million away from housing for much poorer people. 

Amazon, Microsoft and the Chamber dumped nearly a half million dollars into a campaign of misinformation to get people to pick 1B, and our Mayor put his face all over that campaign. But House Our Neighbors had done the work, inoculating voters. I was lucky enough to get to host their press conference in front of Amazon, alongside leaders from House our Neighbors, the Labor Council and the Democratic party. 

In the end, the vote wasn’t even close: almost 2 to 1 in favor.

We were assured this would usher in the collapse of Seattle. (Just like we were assured JumpStart—our only other progressive tax—would kill the golden goose. And the minimum wage. And various other labor protections).

Alas, Seattle is still here! We won the Superbowl, in fact. Here I am with my favorite hardcore fan at the parade. He’s obsessed with Cooper Kupp and Jackson Smith-Njigba if you are curious. 

The tax raised $115M. That means compensation packages in the City of Seattle for people making over $1M a year totaled $2.3 billion, not counting the first million dollars for each person! That is $1.3 billion more in earnings than was even expected.

Interestingly, my post about this on Instagram/Tiktok is my most-watched post by a massive margin. People want this sort of tax all over the country. And they should get it!

Feel free to share it on Instagram (video won’t load here, but the link should work).

Tiktok:

@rondezvousseattle

Seattle’s millionaire tax is a wild success. #taxtherich @House Our Neighbors: Yes on 1A @Tech 4 Housing

Or youtube:

Please spread the good word (via this article or the videos) with others. We need to tax the rich and spend that money to make life affordable for everyday working people. As my friends in the labor movement taught me to say, “When we fight, we win!”