‘Additional burdens placed on top’: Curley blames taxes as survey shows Seattle small businesses struggling

Small businesses in Seattle are struggling, according to a survey released Thursday by Intentionalist.

While The Seattle Times pointed to President Donald Trump imposing tariffs, KIRO host John Curley placed the blame on Seattle’s B&O tax.

“If you are a Seattle restaurant and your gross sales are a million bucks, top line is a million dollars, here’s what happens: B&O tax, $4,700, $40,000 goes to workman’s comp, $10,000 goes to the unemployment insurance, $4,600 goes to paid family leave — which, by the way, most of your employees will never take advantage of, that is a gift to rich people — and then the Seattle B&O tax is anywhere between $2,000 and $5,000,” Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio.

“So here’s what happens: if you’re a restaurant, and you’re working on margins of like 1%, 1.5% or 2%, right off the bottom of it you’re going to pay anywhere between $61,000 to $65,000 to the government,” he continued.

The survey found that only 12% of businesses could cover their costs by customer demand. It also found that 67% of respondents said their business is under more financial stress now than during the pandemic, and the majority of small businesses never recovered from the pandemic.

Curley reiterated that businesses are in a state of crisis “because of the additional burdens placed on top.” He called on Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson to make small businesses a greater priority.

“Man, we’re just whacking away at these people. And as I said to Katie, I said, ‘Listen, you got to take care of your tax base. That’s the first thing,'” Curley said. “It’s like a car without an engine. You can’t take that to Bucky’s and have them fix it. You have to have a tax base. From the tax base, you got to care for your businesses, because that’s where your money’s coming from.”

“You care for your tax base, and people come to the stores, they go to the restaurants, they shop, they spend money, and things grow,” he continued. “But if you go right in there and try to grab that golden goose by the neck and shake it around and try to get the eggs to come out, what happens is by the time you let go of the goose, and he comes back to his senses, his wings start flapping — and poof, off he goes. So hopefully Katie starts to take care of the tax base, because that’s where it all comes from.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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