Seattle Head-Tax Repeal

The Seattle Times, in all its kiss-The-Rich glory, led its editorial page today with an opinion piece entitled "Hey, City Hall: What's the holdup on head-tax repeal?" The "head-tax" is the Times' name for the Employee Tax that charges a tiny fee ($25) to each business for each employee that doesn't bike, walk, take the bus, or commute to work in an environmentally friendly way. In other words, if you drive and park to work in Seattle, your boss has to pay $25 per year.

As taxes go, it's progressive in both its effects and its collection: small businesses are given an exemption from the tax, and it encourages businesses to encourage their employees to carpool, bus, bike, and walk to work. Hell, in my workplace, we even have a guy who longboards to work. (Google it and watch a video of longboarders. Who wouldn't want to travel that way if they could?)

In the Times editorial, they bitch and moan about how it's taking the city council forever to repeal the damn tax. Oh, boo hoo that some of the city council members want to wait until the budget discussions start in the fall. That's called "common sense." You know, the kind that makes a reasonable person say, "gosh, maybe we should wait to see how much money is in the city coffers before we repeal a tax that's not particularly burdensome and helps pay for streets and sidewalks." That seems reasonable to me. But I don't work at the Seattle Times, obviously.