Dani Cone of Cone and Steiner — and Fuel — made the list… twice (Image: CHS)

With a task force recommending a $75 million a year Seattle business tax for housing and homelessness services, a collection of “301 small businesses from every part of the city and every sector of the economy” has sent a letter to the City Council asking them not to move forward with the recommendation.

Several Capitol Hill and Central District businesses, highlighted in bold by CHS below, appear on the roster in the effort touted as “a purely organic grass roots effort and not organized by any one business association or advocacy group.”

“Small businesses across the city are writing to you today to urge you to reconsider the recommendations from the Progressive Revenue Taskforce on the Employee Hours Tax and any consideration of a proposed Employee Hours Tax legislation on Seattle businesses,” the letter begins. “We are disappointed that once again small business leaders were never consulted for input, facts or information about the real challenges we face.”

A Seattle Progressive Revenue Task Force finalized its set of recommendations earlier this month for a so-called “head tax” that could raise $75 million a year to help create housing and provide homelessness services. The final recommendations released March 9th pushes the amount the city should raise to an estimated $150 million — $75 million of which would come from a per-employee tax. “We believe it is imperative to raise a substantial amount of revenue -– enough to make a measurable and significant impact on the crisis –- so that the community sees tangible results from this new investment,” the task force report reads. “People are tired of half-measures and want to see real progress.”

The task force chaired by council members Lorena González and Lisa Herbold  included a mix of affordability and homelessness service advocates and business representatives. In its report, the task force suggests a set of variables for the council to consider as it shapes the final legislation and the filters for which businesses will be included in the tax including possible gross revenue thresholds the City Council could ultimately set in its final legislation.

A Seattle Housing Gap meeting in February was centered around how best to put the revenue from the tax to use.

The task force’s inclusion of a recommendation for a possible $395 annual “skin in the game” alternative tax rate for “employers under the gross revenue threshold” what would “still be required to pay some relatively small amount” seems to have drawn particular ire from the business representatives who signed onto the letter to the council.

“The discussion that small businesses needed a ‘skin in the game’ fee of $395 reflects no appreciation for our reality or for the burden that affordability and rising taxes and fees puts on us,” the business reps write. The full letter can be found here.

Capitol Hill and Central District-area owners and representatives on the list include the long established and the new. Some appear twice, puffing up the number of participants — Dani Cone is listed for both her Fuel Cafe and for Cone and Steiner. Other Hill signees are more understated like Joey Burgess who is listed with Guild Seattle, the holding company behind Pike/Pine hotspots in the Lost Lake Cafe family of businesses. It’s an eclectic group including merchants like Karyn Schwartz of Sugarpill, 11th Ave rehearsal and recording space Crybaby Studios operator Leigh Stone, and Kari Brunson of plant-based ice cream shop Frankie and Jo’s and 12th Ave cafe Juicebox. UPDATE 3/17/18: Brunson tells CHS that she is not “for or against” the tax and did not sign the letter.

“We urge the City Council to slow down, engage with more stakeholders, and work toward creating a feasible regional plan with the State and County, before seeking revenue,” the business owner letter concludes.

The city council is expected to take up the recommendations and begin shaping the tax legislation this month.

UPDATE 4/2/2018: Prefer your information in menu format? Here’s a Central Staff Memo prepared at City Hall to help council members sort out the options as the final legislation proposal comes together:

The full roster of signees is below.