You may have heard about discussions that are happening in Seattle regarding the possible repeal of the Employee Hours Tax that is also known as the “Head Tax”. This is a $25 per employee per year tax to employers for each employee who drives alone to work. The “Head Tax” does not apply for employees who ride transit, bike, walk, car pool or ride share to work. Also, businesses with two or fewer employees and those with under $80,000 in revenues per year are also exempt.
Funds from the “Head Tax” support transportation projects in Seattle, including pedestrian and bicycle programs.
The Downtown Seattle Association and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce have been lobbying Seattle City Council and candidates for Council and mayoral office to eliminate the “Head Tax”.
Recently, City Councilmembers Tim Burgess and Richard Conlin and Mayor Greg Nickels announced their plans to rescind the “Head Tax” without a guarantee of replacement funds for pedestrian and bicycle. Last week in the Council Transportation Committee meeting (watch it here), Jan Drago and Nick Licata expressed their commitment to pedestrian and bicycle programs and recommended that Council wait until budget sessions to discuss the “Head Tax” issue. Their leadership on this was greatly appreciated but may not be enough to hold off the pressure from the Downtown Seattle Association and the Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce to remove the tax ASAP.
Neighborhood, pedestrian, bicycle and sustainability advocates are uniting in an effort to ask Council and the Mayor to retain the “Head Tax”. And, we are asking that if Council and the Mayor eliminate this tax, that replacement funds be bindingly committed for bike and pedestrian projects and that a similar incentive for reducing vehicle miles traveled be found. Most of the bike and pedestrian projects are capital in nature and bring much-needed jobs to our city in this challenging economic time. And, they help our community to do the right thing in biking and using transit and reduce vehicle miles traveled.
If funding for neighborhood pedestrian and bicycle programs are important to you, please contact Council and the Mayor this week before they make a decision to repeal the “Head Tax” without replacing funding for pedestrian and bicycle programs.
Councilmember’s and Mayor’s e-mail addresses
Tim.Burgess@seattle.gov
Sally.Clark@seattle.gov
Richard.Conlin@seattle.gov
Jan.Drago@seattle.gov
Jean.Godden@seattle.gov
Bruce.Harrell@seattle.gov
Nick.Licata@seattle.gov
Richard.McIver@seattle.gov
Tom.Rasmussen@seattle.gov
Citizens are directed to the following website to complete a form to
send an email to the Mayor’s Office.
http://www.cityofseattle.net/mayor/citizen_response.htm
We have also started a Facebook group: Don’t lose your head tax.
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