Dori Monson Show listeners weigh in on Seattle’s head tax

If the Seattle City Council polled listeners of KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson Show about the city’s proposed head tax, council members would find a nearly unanimous opinion.

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Dori invited his listeners from every corner of Puget Sound to call in on Wednesday, the same day that the Seattle City Council heard public comment on the controversial tax that has Amazon halting its expansion in Seattle.

Tamara from Edmonds pointed out that council members like Kshama Sawant and Mike O’Brien are simply “do[ing] what politicians do.” Instead, she said, what everyone should be worried about is “the people who keep voting them into office”

Dylan from Everett agreed with Tamara that Seattle residents need to make a change in who represents them.

“What can the citizens do to either demand a mental health evaluation on some of these liberal lunatics or to get these people out of office?” he asked.

In a more serious tone, he asked what residents can do “to take their city back?”

Dori told him that last week’s community meeting with O’Brien in Ballard was a good start, but that the momentum needs to keep going.

Several callers criticized Sawant’s grasp of economics. Sawant, who identifies as a socialist, has been vocal that it is up to Amazon and other large Seattle businesses to pay for the solution to the city’s homelessness crisis.

Terry from Sedro-Woolley said that far from solving homelessness, the head tax will actually make more people homeless, because it will eliminate jobs.

“The biggest expense for an employer is labor, so now you’re gonna tack more expense onto that employer for his labor … if I’m not gonna increase my revenue, I’m not gonna hire more people,” Terry said.

Terry did jokingly add the disclaimer, however, that he may not be an expert, because unlike Sawant, he has never taught economics at a community college.

Lee from Tukwila said that Sawant “is looking at this completely wrong” because she “does not have a business plan.” Himself a business owner since 1980, Lee said that a business plan is necessary for every large economic decision an organization takes.

Lee also disputed the argument that the problem is homelessness itself, noting that about half the homeless people he has encountered are willingly on the streets and addicted to drugs.

“It’s not the homeless situation as much as it is the drug situation itself,” he said.

John, who has owned a home in Ballard for over two decades, backed this up. He described the “renegade homeless” that can be spotted by the Fred Meyer on Ballard’s Leary Way, as well as the “caravans of people moving into the city” because of the lax controls on tent encampments.

Andrew from Rainier Beach, who said he has lived in the area 25 years, described how, when he graduated from the University of Washington in 2009 during the economic downturn, he had trouble finding a job. Andrew said that he paid his dues by waiting tables in restaurants and eventually worked his way up to a position at Amazon and the ability to buy a home for his family.

“It took eight years of really hard work, and I just wanted to remind the listeners, it’s not just the Amazons and Microsofts and Boeings of the region – there are hundreds if not thousands of contract companies that provides services, where those jobs will also be drastically affected if Amazon decides to take jobs out of Seattle and Boeing decides to move more jobs out of Washington,” Andrew said.

Caller sentiment was perhaps best summed up in the words of Ben from Gig Harbor, a college student who has been going to school in Tampa, Florida. Ben said that he had not been back to visit the Pacific Northwest for half a year, and that being away from the region for a time had changed his perspective.

“I didn’t realize how bad it was up here,” Ben said.

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