Rupert Neate
Tue 15 May 2018 12.39 EDT
Last modified on Wed 16 May 2018 07.05 EDT
Amazon has threatened to move jobs out of its hometown of Seattle after the city council introduced a new tax to try to address the homelessness crisis.
'Tax Amazon': Seattle passes plan for corporate wealth tax to fund housing
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The world’s second-biggest company has warned that the “hostile” tax, which will charge firms $275 per worker a year to fund homelessness outreach services and affordable housing, “forces us to question our growth here”.
Amazon, which is Seattle’s biggest private sector employer with more than 40,000 staff in the city, had halted construction work on a 17-storey office tower in protest against the tax.
Pressure from Amazon and other big employers, including Starbucks and Expedia, had forced councillors to reduce the tax from an initial proposal of $500 per worker. The tax will only effect companies making revenue of more than $20m-a-year.
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Amazon’s chief executive, Jeff Bezos, is the world’s richest man with a $133bn (133,000,000,000) fortune.
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Starbucks had also fought against the tax, with its public affairs chief, John Kelly, accusing the city of continuing to “spend without reforming and fail without accountability, while ignoring the plight of hundreds of children sleeping outside”.
He added: “If they cannot provide a warm meal and safe bed to a five-year-old child, no one believes they will be able to make housing affordable or address opiate addiction.”
Where in the world does Kelly think the money will come from to feed and house these children he pretends to care about?
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