The homelessness issue is complex but imposing tax head is not a solution. You cannot blame businesses for homeless people.
I hope that tax head will be declared unconstitutional. Seattle is now gathering a lot of petitions to repeal the head tax.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the per-employee tax is asinine in the extreme, even for Left-Coast Marxists, but how is this bad city tax policy a constitutional issue? Unequal treatment?
Personally, I find it baffling that large companies like Apple, Google or Amazon don’t fund and run their own candidates in local elections to protect their interests. They are completely held hostage by political idiots and their promises of “free stuff” stolen from businesses for the voters otherwise.
And taking it another step, why shouldn’t they advocate for tax-free Special Economic Zones in their states? The mere existence of these very large employers is a huge benefit to states.
BTW, many here probably don't know where Mr Jobs final public appearance was: In front of the Cupertino City Council arguing for the new campus. Wonderful short video
Folks, notice in the video the city council room, look at the money they spent to build that room. I can tell you towns around me have nothing like that, they have a big room which they set up a table with chairs and cheap folding plastic chair for the public to sit in. When the room is not use for council activities it being loaned out or rented out to the local community to use for meetings. There is no reason people who are take hand out form the public in the way of taxes should be spending it on nice digs for themselves when they are claiming they need money for infrastructure. Governments should not have the nicest building around, they do not make profits they only spend money as such it should not be spent on things which only benefit them ie a council room.
I hope everybody reads this post because this is what the majority of America is like. Local government doesnt throw away millions on flashy digs. Facilities that are built serve multiple uses. Further wages paid to government workers are not out of line with lical industry. Oh one more thing infrastructure is just that, projects that serve the whole community. Infrastructure projects in California are most often tunnels to feed favored individuals.
By the way ive been to this area of California several times overr the years and the wealth is shocking. These cities and towns have budgets that most in the USA will never have access too. It is high time for voters in the communities to demand better value for their dollar.
BTW, many here probably don't know where Mr Jobs final public appearance was: In front of the Cupertino City Council arguing for the new campus. Wonderful short video
Folks, notice in the video the city council room, look at the money they spent to build that room. I can tell you towns around me have nothing like that, they have a big room which they set up a table with chairs and cheap folding plastic chair for the public to sit in. When the room is not use for council activities it being loaned out or rented out to the local community to use for meetings. There is no reason people who are take hand out form the public in the way of taxes should be spending it on nice digs for themselves when they are claiming they need money for infrastructure. Governments should not have the nicest building around, they do not make profits they only spend money as such it should not be spent on things which only benefit them ie a council room.
I hope everybody reads this post because this is what the majority of America is like. Local government doesnt throw away millions on flashy digs. Facilities that are built serve multiple uses. Further wages paid to government workers are not out of line with lical industry. Oh one more thing infrastructure is just that, projects that serve the whole community. Infrastructure projects in California are most often tunnels to feed favored individuals.
By the way ive been to this area of California several times overr the years and the wealth is shocking. These cities and towns have budgets that most in the USA will never have access too. It is high time for voters in the communities to demand better value for their dollar.
To add to this point, where I live there is lots of wealth, the median income is way above the national average and the home costs are well in the 6 figures so it is not like the tax base does not exist. I lived the Silicon Valley and I can tell you my house hold income today is more than twice what it was when I lived in the Valley, and the total $ of taxes I pay now, Local, State, School, and Property is less then it was in Calif. I can say we are tax fairly for the services the local government provides they are not looking for ways to extra more taxes.
The homelessness issue is complex but imposing tax head is not a solution. You cannot blame businesses for homeless people.
I hope that tax head will be declared unconstitutional. Seattle is now gathering a lot of petitions to repeal the head tax.
Not sure Cupertino has homeless problem, but this whole head tax things got highlighted because of what Seattle is doing and they do have a homeless issue which they plan to use the $75M they raise each year to solve.
Seattle is a case study on how not to do thing. Here is what Seattle did, they attracted companies to come there and do business since cost structures were low. Companies come, they became very successful and need to hire more people. However, the city decides to put in very tough rules and laws about building make it very hard to build new homes and apartments. As company grew there is more competition for homes and apartment. Housing costs go up so it forces company to pay more to hire people since they can not afford home there and the cycle continues. This start to put pressure on people on the lowed end of the wage scales to find housing. Then Seattle raise minimum wage to try and help those on the bottom end of scale live in the city. Well this did not help since companies did not hire more minimum wage workers they did the opposite they hired less and did more with less. Seattle homeless problem got worse. They also pass laws that private landlord must accept the first person who applies and passes the credit check and can pay rent, but they are not allow to do a criminal background check. So individual who rent property are selling since they do not want the risk of rent to someone they do not want living in their property. and big leasing companies are buying up properties and driving up rents so they do not need to deal with the lower end of the scale. Finally you have Seattle doing this head tax to punish companies for what they perceive creating a homeless problem and not sharing the wealth. This is going to end badly for Seattle especially when the market turns around and it will.
Just some math for you, Seattle have 11,000 homeless, 3rd highest in the country (NYC has 75K and LA has 55K) and the city plans to raise $75M each year, so they plan to house them on $7,000 for each person. The government is going to give in same way shape or from $7K because they were unable to figure out how to make a living for themselves. $7K per person is not going to solve this problem.
As I always said, you think you have a problem today, wait to you see the solution the government comes up with.
maestro64 said: the problem in Calf is all taxes go to the state and they decide who gets the money.
This is not quite correct. There are lots of different taxes in California. Sales and use tax is paid to the state but counties, cities and other districts can add additional sales taxes. Property taxes go to the counties.
all wage taxes go to the state, that is what i was talking about and then local have to petition the state to get some of that money back.
Obviously. All states are the same in that regard, as far as I know, not just California.
Comments
And taking it another step, why shouldn’t they advocate for tax-free Special Economic Zones in their states? The mere existence of these very large employers is a huge benefit to states.
By the way ive been to this area of California several times overr the years and the wealth is shocking. These cities and towns have budgets that most in the USA will never have access too. It is high time for voters in the communities to demand better value for their dollar.
Not sure Cupertino has homeless problem, but this whole head tax things got highlighted because of what Seattle is doing and they do have a homeless issue which they plan to use the $75M they raise each year to solve.
Seattle is a case study on how not to do thing. Here is what Seattle did, they attracted companies to come there and do business since cost structures were low. Companies come, they became very successful and need to hire more people. However, the city decides to put in very tough rules and laws about building make it very hard to build new homes and apartments. As company grew there is more competition for homes and apartment. Housing costs go up so it forces company to pay more to hire people since they can not afford home there and the cycle continues. This start to put pressure on people on the lowed end of the wage scales to find housing. Then Seattle raise minimum wage to try and help those on the bottom end of scale live in the city. Well this did not help since companies did not hire more minimum wage workers they did the opposite they hired less and did more with less. Seattle homeless problem got worse. They also pass laws that private landlord must accept the first person who applies and passes the credit check and can pay rent, but they are not allow to do a criminal background check. So individual who rent property are selling since they do not want the risk of rent to someone they do not want living in their property. and big leasing companies are buying up properties and driving up rents so they do not need to deal with the lower end of the scale. Finally you have Seattle doing this head tax to punish companies for what they perceive creating a homeless problem and not sharing the wealth. This is going to end badly for Seattle especially when the market turns around and it will.
Just some math for you, Seattle have 11,000 homeless, 3rd highest in the country (NYC has 75K and LA has 55K) and the city plans to raise $75M each year, so they plan to house them on $7,000 for each person. The government is going to give in same way shape or from $7K because they were unable to figure out how to make a living for themselves. $7K per person is not going to solve this problem.
As I always said, you think you have a problem today, wait to you see the solution the government comes up with.
There, fixed that for you.