Seattleites Call on City Council to Enact ‘Amazon Tax’ for COVID-19 Relief

Tax will fund $200M immediate cash assistance for up to 100,000 households, then build 10,000 new homes

Councilmember Kshama Sawant (District 3, Central Seattle) presented a community petition signed by more than 5,400 community members to the City Council, calling on them to immediately enact the ‘Amazon Tax’ which she proposed last month with Councilmember Tammy J. Morales.

The tax would be levied on Amazon and the biggest two percent of businesses in Seattle, raising $500 million a year beginning in June 2020, with $200 million dedicated this year to emergency COVID-19 relief to help up to 100,000 working-class households. Beginning in 2021, the tax would fund social housing and the Green New Deal in order to address the city’s critical housing emergency and the climate crisis.

The petition notes that with the COVID-19 pandemic, “working people and those marginalized in our society to begin with, are the ones most at risk from the vast spectrum of social consequences resulting from this pandemic.”

“We join Councilmembers Tammy J. Morales and Kshama Sawant in calling for an immediate enactment of the Amazon Tax they have already proposed, but passing the ordinance immediately in order to fund the emergency needs of our community. “Big business has long been enjoying a tax haven in Seattle and Washington state. They need to immediately start paying at least $500 million/year as the Amazon Tax to fund COVID-19 emergency relief fund. After the pandemic has ended, the tax must be continued to fund social housing and the Green New Deal in order to address our critical housing and climate crises, as put forward by Councilmembers Sawant and Morales and the Tax Amazon movement.”