Fighting Seattle head tax was just a starting point for organizers

Repealing the Seattle head tax was just the beginning for the people behind the grassroots effort to collect thousands of signatures from residents opposed to the council’s controversial policy.

Saul Spady, who helped lead the No Tax on Jobs campaign, told KTTH Radio’s Jason Rantz that during the effort to get a repeal on the November ballot, they saw Seattle “step up and take action against a council they’d seen go a little rogue (to put it kindly).”

Though the Seattle City Council ended up repealing the head tax about a month after it was approved, the campaign still submitted approximately 46,000 signatures it gathered — it only needed about 18,000 to get on the ballot. Those signatures were submitted shortly after it was announced the city was being sued over allegedly violating the state’s Open Public Meetings Act.

However, Spady doesn’t want to end there and be known as someone who says “no.” He says he wants to see a citywide effort to push forward and find solutions to the city’s homeless problem.

“For the five years I’ve been working on family homelessness,” Spady said. “I’ve always believed we’ll solve homelessness as a community with everyone being involved and engaged.”

Spady rejects the belief that talking about homelessness is creating animus toward people living on the streets.

Seattle head tax 101

“The reason so many people are speaking up is because they feel unsafe,” he said. “It’s something we need to take seriously.”

Spady lists out several solutions to the homeless crisis in the city, including needing a bigger focus on safety. He also wants to see a more “fiscally responsible government” that is transparent and accountable. He wants to see the region provide a “pathway to stability.”

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