SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Senator proposes employee tax credit for counties with high unemployment
May 24, 2018, 4:40 PM
Senator Steve O'Ban. (TVW)
(TVW)
With the City of Seattle charging its 600 largest-grossing businesses $275 for each person they employ via its new head tax, state government leaders are coming up with ideas to counteract the head tax in areas outside the Emerald City.
RELATED: Pierce County hopes to set ‘good example’ with employee tax credit
Sen. Steve O’Ban (R-Tacoma) of the 28th Legislative District is proposing a $275 per job tax credit for Washington counties that are struggling most with unemployment.
O’Ban said that the credit — exactly the same amount per employee as Seattle’s newest tax — is a direct response to the Seattle city government’s actions.
“I think it’s absolutely absurd and mind-boggling — when you tax something, you get less of it,” O’Ban told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson in reference to the head tax. “I don’t know of any place other than Seattle … that thinks of high-paying jobs as something you want less of.”
Under O’Ban’s proposal, the 16 counties whose unemployment rate is more than 25 percent above that of the state as a whole would qualify for the tax credit. This list includes Grant, Yakima, Grays Harbor, Okanogan, Lewis, Clallam, Cowlitz, Skamania, Mason, Jefferson, Pacific, Franklin, Ferry, Stevens, Pond Oreille, and Wahkiakum Counties.
“Those counties would love to get the jobs that Seattle is rejecting and turning their nose down at,” O’Ban said.
The credit would apply to any new jobs that are created; this could be either by an existing business, or a business that moves to one of the qualifying counties from another area. Each qualifying job would need to pay $1 per hour more than the area’s minimum wage.
“I want employers to be incentivized to move to those counties that desperately need these jobs and want those jobs,” O’Ban stated.
O’Ban’s bill is not the only move of its kind; Pierce County released a similar response to the head tax earlier this week. The county is offering businesses a $275 tax credit for every new job that is created and pays at least $65,000.
The senator said that he expects his bill to receive bipartisan support in Olympia.
“I’m not going to write off the Legislature just because of Seattle and just because we have a governor who is more interested in running for president than governing the state,” he said.
