Amazon finally takes on tax-happy Seattle City Council

The progressive online retail giant, with the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, fights back against Pacific Northwest progressives' moves to tax just about everything, The Wall Street Journal reports.

"Amazon prides itself on progressive values, but it has discovered that it's tough to do business under Seattle's progressive government. {Editor's note: Google take warning}. The company is now spending big to elect a more business-friendly City Council on Nov. 5 in a test of whether the left or the far left controls Seattle's government.

Opportunity Now covered Seattle's repeal of its head tax earlier this year.

"Seven of the City Council's nine seats now are up for grabs, and Amazon has given more than $1.4 million this year to the political action committee run by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce. 'Seattle is a very progressive city,' said the PAC's executive director Markham McIntry, but voters have a choice between left-leaning 'candidates who see an opportunity to work with business large and small' and those 'who would prefer to demonize the business community.'

"The latter includes incumbent Kshama Sawant of the Socialist Alternative Party who wanted a head tax of $1,000 per employee and denounced repeal as a "cowardly betrayal."

"National Democrats have noticed the races and are treating Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos as if he had donated to Donald Trump. Elizabeth Warren decried Amazon for 'trying to tilt the Seattle City Council elections in their favor,' adding that 'I have a plan to get big money out of politics.'

"After the Election, councilmember Lorena Gonzales, plans to introduce legislation to cap individual contributions to candidates or committees at a total of $5,000. She also wants to ban campaign contributions from most companies with foreign shareholders, which would disqualify Amazon, Uber, and most corporations. {Editors' note: compare the impact of Gonzales' plan to the labor-backed, and ironically titled Fair Elections Initiative in San Jose.}

"The message to Seattle businesses is clear: Defeat the socialists now, or they'll rig the system so you never get another chance.”

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