Supporters at left of a tax on large companies such as Amazon and Starbucks that was intended to combat a growing homelessness crisis stand in Seattle City Council Chambers and face off against people... (Associated Press) 
 
 Supporters at left of a tax on large companies such as Amazon and Starbucks that was intended to combat a growing homelessness crisis stand in Seattle City Council Chambers and face off against people at right supporting the repeal of the tax, Tuesday, June 12, 2018, at City Hall in Seattle. Council member Lisa Herbold said the groups opposing the tax had "unlimited resources" and that her vote to repeal was "counter to my values as a person." The vote showed Amazon's ability to aggressively push back on government taxes, especially in its affluent hometown where it's the largest employer with more than 45,000 workers and where it has been criticized for contributing to a widening income gap. Mountain View Mayor Lenny Siegel said Seattle's about-face hasn't changed his support for the tax, the details of which the council and city administrators have been working on for several months. After the session to consider repealing the law was announced a day earlier, Seattle's Chamber of Commerce said it was a "breath of fresh air." The company said the vote "to repeal the tax on job creation is the right decision for the region's economic prosperity." City leaders underestimated the frustration and anger from residents, businesses and others over not just a tax increase but also a growing sense that homelessness appears to have gotten worse, not better, despite Seattle spending millions to fight it. By comparison, San Francisco, where around 10,000 people are living without stable housing, will spend about $305 million this year on the crisis. The tax would have collected about $275 per head on employees at businesses with more than $20 million in annual revenue, raising roughly $48 million a year for housing and other services for the city's booming homeless population. But a one-night count in January found more than 12,000 homeless people in the Seattle and surrounding region, a 4 percent increase from the previous year. The wire service says 169 homeless people died in 2017. Many supporters called the repeal a betrayal and said the tax was a step toward building badly needed affordable housing. They booed council members, imploring them to keep it and fight a coalition of businesses trying to get a referendum overturning the tax on the November ballot. Several council members, including three who sponsored the legislation but voted to repeal it, lamented the reversal and conceded they didn't have the resources or time to fight the referendum. "We have reached the conclusion that this is not a winnable battle at this time," Councilwoman Lisa Herbold said before the vote. In a meeting punctured with shouting from activists, council members voted 7-2 to repeal the so-called "head tax," which would have raised about $47 million per year to fund affordable housing projects and to help the city's homeless population. Days after it passed, the business-backed No Tax On Jobs campaign began gathering signatures for the ballot and raised more than $280,000 in cash contributions in just weeks.
– What does defeat sound like? This: "We have reached the conclusion that this is not a winnable battle at this time." That was the pronouncement of Seattle Councilwoman Lisa Herbold Tuesday in advance of what ended up being a 7-2 vote to reverse a new tax the council had unanimously approved only a month prior. The so-called "head tax" would have generated just shy of $50 million annually to put toward homelessness and affordable housing by charging businesses that generate more than $20 million in revenue a year about $275 per employee. That would have hit about 3% of businesses in the city, one of which is Amazon, which would have contributed about 25% of the expected total, reports NPR. The company was vocal in its opposition. And per SeattlePI.com, the "stunning wealth" of Amazon, Starbucks, and the rest of the opposition drove the reversal. As Councilwoman Lorena Gonzalez explains, "I have been unable to find a way forward that we could out-fund and out-resource the opposition campaign by November" (the opposition was campaigning for a referendum on the tax in the fall). "Money has funded this campaign that put us in a position where we have to repeal this law." The AP characterizes city leaders as having "underestimated the frustration" over not just the tax but the fact that while $68 million was spent on homelessness last year, a January count found the homeless population in the Seattle area up 4%, to 12,000, suggesting to some that the city's current resources weren't being used appropriately.