SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Sawant’s Amazon head tax 2.0 about creating captive voters

Jan 8, 2020, 8:40 AM

Amazon, Sawant, Amazon head tax...

Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant speaking out against Amazon in April 2018. (Facebook Live)

(Facebook Live)

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has announced that she is bringing back the Amazon head tax from 2018.

They have to tax that Jeff Bezos. What has he done? All he has done is create jobs, generate tax revenue, and provide a good income to most of his workers in Seattle. I know, I’ve heard about the stories in the warehouses, but if you look just at Seattle, there are a lot of six-figure jobs.

But it’s not enough — in Sawant’s words, he is “the enemy.”

Of course, a couple of years ago, the city council tried doing this, with disastrous consequences.

Dori: Head tax drama shows lunatics are running Seattle

Sawant says that she wants to tax big business and use the money to build … public housing. She wants to allow people to live in this public housing without rules. You can drink alcohol, you can use drugs, and you will still be provided with an apartment — an apartment that Amazon and other big businesses will pay for.

As we know, Sawant is not about solving any problems. But she apparently has seen that Chicago, after decades of disastrous public housing, had to raze the public housing they built in the 1960s. The more that government gets involved to end poverty, the worse poverty gets in cities dominated by big government. Look at New York City’s public housing — it has been a disaster.

What is the motivation behind this Amazon head tax and public housing push? The politicians want to take drug vagrants and make them captive voters. It is not about helping these individuals to turn their lives around. It is about generating a whole new voting base, conveniently all concentrated in the same place. That way, when Sawant’s supporters hand out leaflets asking for votes for a new tax, these people will support it.

Seattle’s tax revenue, on a per capita basis, is among the highest in the country. The city has plenty of money. The council just does not know how to spend it.

This Amazon head tax is not about helping anyone’s life. It is about having captive voters in one place who can be easily manipulated and controlled.

Listen to the Dori Monson Show weekday afternoons from 12-3 p.m. on KIRO Radio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Please follow our Community Guidelines

President Donald Trump speaks in the East Room of the White House, Tuesday Sept. 29, 2026, during a...

Associated Press

In Silicon Valley, AI founders cheer Trump’s calls for the industry to police itself on safety

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tech Week is in full bloom in San Francisco, packing the city’s restaurants this week with venture capitalists and AI founders ebullient about the White House’s stance on regulating artificial intelligence — namely, don’t do it. And after months of debate about leading AI companies’ unchecked AI agents meddling with everything […]

1 hour ago

Associated Press

Hundreds of thousands without power after Isaias slams the Florida Panhandle and Alabama

GULF BREEZE, Fla. (AP) — Hundreds of thousands of people in Alabama and the Florida Panhandle were without power early Saturday after Isaias crashed into the U.S. Gulf Coast as a dangerous hurricane and left flooded roads and downed trees in its wake as it moved inland. The storm made landfall Friday as a Category […]

1 hour ago

Rescue workers carry a body after pulling from the rubble of a residential building destroyed by a ...

Associated Press

Russian attacks kill 7 in Ukraine after Trump strikes diesel deal with Putin

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian strikes killed at least seven people in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, officials said Saturday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump announced a deal to buy Russian diesel that Kyiv warned would help bankroll Moscow’s war in Ukraine. Three children were among the seven people killed when Russian aerial bombs hit […]

2 hours ago

Associated Press

Simon strengthens into a Category 4 hurricane as it approaches Mexico’s coast

MIAMI (AP) — Simon has strengthened into a powerful Category 4 hurricane as it barrels toward Mexico’s coast. The National Hurricane Center in Miami said early Saturday Simon’s maximum sustained winds increased to 140 mph (22 kmh). A storm of that strength or greater is considered a major hurricane. Simon is expected to bring heavy […]

2 hours ago

Maddie Cornwell, a senior at Evergreen High School, visits with a pair of support dogs named Polent...

Associated Press

Therapy dogs bring calm and joy to students following shooting at Colorado high school

EVERGREEN, Colo. (AP) — With wagging tails and kind eyes, the four-legged staff members at Evergreen High School welcome students each morning, walk the halls and visit classrooms to offer a loving, calming presence and moments of joy to a student body still processing a school shooting. Norene and Polenta, two golden Labs, joined the […]

3 hours ago

President Donald Trump departs a campaign rally at the Oncenter, Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, in Syracuse,...

Associated Press

Trump and Iran agree on one thing. The US election calendar isn’t driving their decisions on the war

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Iran’s leadership appear to agree on one thing about their seven-month-old war: they each insist the U.S. election calendar isn’t motivating them to find an end to it. Persistent inflation and high gas prices fueled by the conflict have driven widespread American disapproval of the war — a […]

5 hours ago

Dori: Sawant’s Amazon head tax 2.0 about creating captive voters