Amazon, Microsoft Back Tax to Fight Seattle-Area Homelessness
- Costco, Starbucks among region’s companies supporting new tax
- Washington bill would allow King County to tax big salaries
Makeshift tent encampments sit under a highway in Seattle, Washington.
Photographer: Chona Kasinger/Bloomberg
This article is for subscribers only.
Amazon.com Inc., Microsoft Corp., Costco Wholesale Corp. and other big Seattle-area companies expressed support for a proposed business tax to combat the region’s homelessness crisis.
A Washington State bill released last week would authorize King County, home to Seattle and the headquarters of those companies, to impose a levy on big businesses with employees who make more than $150,000 a year. The new revenue would be earmarked for affordable housing, homelessness services and public safety.