From Seattle's own GeekWire:
Bernie Sanders reveled in Amazon’s defeat. Elizabeth Warren issued a warning about Jeff Bezos. And that was all before the week even began.....MUCH MORE
Over the weekend, it became clear that Seattle voters have elected an ultra-progressive City Council, despite a massive financial push by Amazon to pull the government in its hometown away from the far left. The news has been reverberating across the country as national politicians hold Seattle up as an example of effective resistance to corporate influence in politics.
In some ways, the election was the denouement of a two-year conflict between the current Seattle City Council and Amazon, the city’s largest tech company. But the election was also just the beginning.
Seattle’s new leadership is arguably more progressive than ever before as Amazon continues to grow in size and power. Meanwhile, officials are still looking for revenue sources to tackle the city’s housing and homelessness crisis and fund transit. As these factors converge in the next year, the Seattle City Council and the tech industry could be poised for a fight. It’s a battle that progressive politicians across the country will be watching closely as they campaign on promises to rein in corporate power and income inequality.
Top of mind for the tech community is whether the new City Council will resurrect the so-called “head tax,” a controversial piece of legislation that first pitted Amazon against elected officials in its hometown in a major way.
The plan was to tax businesses with more than $20 million in annual revenue on a per-employee basis to fund housing and services for the homeless. Seattle’s homelessness crisis has been branded a state of emergency since 2015, as the tech industry has flourished and the population has boomed. With more than 50,000 employees in Seattle, Amazon would have been the biggest source of revenue under the tax....
