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Amazon Pauses Huge Development Plans in Seattle Over Tax Plan

11 points by stablemap 8y ago

damm 8y ago
I know I'm biased as I live in Seattle. But GTFO Amazon and let other businesses come into town. Maybe we'll have sprawling businesses all over the city/state instead of trying to be glutted into East Lake Union. At one point you brought in more than 1,200 employee's a week. We couldn't keep up with the housing. So help your employee's who couldn't get a place and pay the head tax. ;) I know you won't.
- Alex63 8y ago
  How is paying the head tax going to help Seattle-area employees? It's unlikely that many Seattle-area employees are going to qualify for the 1800 "affordable housing units." The underlying issue appears to be Seattle's restrictions on development. The crazy cost of housing in the area is the result of restrictions on supply (and the high incomes of many tech employees). I'm also unpersuaded that this tax will have any significant impact on homelessness in the area unless restrictions on development are eased. It's going to be interesting in the long term to see how the socialist city council reconciles their political philosophy with their constituents' demands for tight controls on development. We only have to look at San Francisco to see the likely outcome.
  - damm 8y ago
    It's designed to help the homeless. If those employee's are homeless it would be there to help them. It's hard but we need to stop looking down at them like a blight; put yourself in their shoes and see how you would look. People are homeless for a variety of reasons but most of them could be handled with affordable housing for them and mental help and job counseling. Lots of people think that's giving them too much but the State gives us a lot to begin with.
    - whb07 8y ago
      The city of Seattle has had the highest spending for homelessness in the past year and the issue has gotten worse. Tell me, what do you think would happen if you gave them $500 million more? I saw a local grocer give her opinion when Seattle’s city was having a hearing for this. This tax is going to negatively impact her as she’s already having razor thin margins. It’s her company that’s donating tons(literally) of food to the shelters. Boy that’s a great thing, negatively impact private charity with inefficient government taxes. Milton Friedman once said that if you put the government in charge of running the Sahara, they would shortly run out of sand. I think if you gave Seattle’s government more tax money they would burn it all and come back looking for more shortly after. Just like they have been doing.
      - damm 8y ago
        > Tell me, what do you think would happen if you gave them $500 million more? Honestly with the way Seattle is with it's taxes. I highly doubt it; there's already 90 million allocated and all they have been doing is studies and trying to help outreach programs. I know what I could do with 500million if I had it; I'd build a bunch of low income housing apartment complexes all over town and use outreach to bring people off the streets. I don't think Durkan is up to the task however. > I'm still waiting for them to fix the roads after we gave them another tax levy to fix the roads. It's been almost 4 years in some area's. Now if you want to argue that Seattleite's are overtaxed and we don't see enough out of it. I'm game i'll agree with you. But as far as Amazon; my view is they are one company who is too big. If they were like other companies like Nintendo and Microsoft and Google who have offices all over Metro Seattle and King County I would have much more sympathy. If they were a little guy trying to make ends meat I would. However Amazon is a big fish. Their earnings show it. Revenue: $51.04 billion vs. $49.78 billion, as estimated, according to Thomson Reuters EPS: $3.27 per share vs $1.26 per share, as estimated, according to Thomson Reuters AWS revenue: $5.44 billion vs. $5.25 billion, as estimated, according to FactSet https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/26/amazon-earnings-q1-2018.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/26/amazon-earnings-q1-2018.html
        bellt0wn98121 8y ago
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- mrep 8y ago
  Actually, Seattle has been great at approving new housing development which is why we have had the most cranes in the country for a while now. In fact, despite the massive increase in residents, rent prices even went down recently: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-area-rents-drop-significantly-for-first-time-this-decade-as-new-apartments-sit-empty/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-ar...
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
throwawaymanbot 8y ago
Wont pay tax... but likes to tweet what he should do with all his money. Laughable.

11 points by stablemap 8y ago

damm 8y ago

I know I'm biased as I live in Seattle. But GTFO Amazon and let other businesses come into town. Maybe we'll have sprawling businesses all over the city/state instead of trying to be glutted into East Lake Union. At one point you brought in more than 1,200 employee's a week. We couldn't keep up with the housing. So help your employee's who couldn't get a place and pay the head tax. ;) I know you won't.

Alex63 8y ago
How is paying the head tax going to help Seattle-area employees? It's unlikely that many Seattle-area employees are going to qualify for the 1800 "affordable housing units." The underlying issue appears to be Seattle's restrictions on development. The crazy cost of housing in the area is the result of restrictions on supply (and the high incomes of many tech employees). I'm also unpersuaded that this tax will have any significant impact on homelessness in the area unless restrictions on development are eased. It's going to be interesting in the long term to see how the socialist city council reconciles their political philosophy with their constituents' demands for tight controls on development. We only have to look at San Francisco to see the likely outcome.
- damm 8y ago
  It's designed to help the homeless. If those employee's are homeless it would be there to help them. It's hard but we need to stop looking down at them like a blight; put yourself in their shoes and see how you would look. People are homeless for a variety of reasons but most of them could be handled with affordable housing for them and mental help and job counseling. Lots of people think that's giving them too much but the State gives us a lot to begin with.
  - whb07 8y ago
    The city of Seattle has had the highest spending for homelessness in the past year and the issue has gotten worse. Tell me, what do you think would happen if you gave them $500 million more? I saw a local grocer give her opinion when Seattle’s city was having a hearing for this. This tax is going to negatively impact her as she’s already having razor thin margins. It’s her company that’s donating tons(literally) of food to the shelters. Boy that’s a great thing, negatively impact private charity with inefficient government taxes. Milton Friedman once said that if you put the government in charge of running the Sahara, they would shortly run out of sand. I think if you gave Seattle’s government more tax money they would burn it all and come back looking for more shortly after. Just like they have been doing.
    - damm 8y ago
      > Tell me, what do you think would happen if you gave them $500 million more? Honestly with the way Seattle is with it's taxes. I highly doubt it; there's already 90 million allocated and all they have been doing is studies and trying to help outreach programs. I know what I could do with 500million if I had it; I'd build a bunch of low income housing apartment complexes all over town and use outreach to bring people off the streets. I don't think Durkan is up to the task however. > I'm still waiting for them to fix the roads after we gave them another tax levy to fix the roads. It's been almost 4 years in some area's. Now if you want to argue that Seattleite's are overtaxed and we don't see enough out of it. I'm game i'll agree with you. But as far as Amazon; my view is they are one company who is too big. If they were like other companies like Nintendo and Microsoft and Google who have offices all over Metro Seattle and King County I would have much more sympathy. If they were a little guy trying to make ends meat I would. However Amazon is a big fish. Their earnings show it. Revenue: $51.04 billion vs. $49.78 billion, as estimated, according to Thomson Reuters EPS: $3.27 per share vs $1.26 per share, as estimated, according to Thomson Reuters AWS revenue: $5.44 billion vs. $5.25 billion, as estimated, according to FactSet https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/26/amazon-earnings-q1-2018.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/26/amazon-earnings-q1-2018.html
      - bellt0wn98121 8y ago
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
mrep 8y ago
Actually, Seattle has been great at approving new housing development which is why we have had the most cranes in the country for a while now. In fact, despite the massive increase in residents, rent prices even went down recently: https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-area-rents-drop-significantly-for-first-time-this-decade-as-new-apartments-sit-empty/ https://www.seattletimes.com/business/real-estate/seattle-ar...
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

throwawaymanbot 8y ago

Wont pay tax... but likes to tweet what he should do with all his money. Laughable.