Tech Workers Brace For Seattle’s Plan to ‘Tax The Rich’

Kate and John Walter see themselves as victims of a housing crisis spawned by Seattle’s technology boom — but they disagree whether high tech workers like them also should be the solution.

The married Seattle couple are among thousands of tech workers whose rising salaries have made rents and mortgages soar in the city. It’s a common issue in urban areas where Amazon, Microsoft, Tesla and other technology giants have expanded their presence and payrolls.

Seattle’s latest attempt to address the affordability crisis is “tax the rich” — a new income tax on anyone making more than $250,000 a year or couples making more than $500,000. If it overcomes a legal challenge, the tax would be earmarked for affordable housing, services for the homeless and transit to help lower-paid workers find housing further from downtown.

Meeting after work in Seattle’s trendy South Lake Union neighborhood, as hundreds of blue-badge workers from Amazon and other companies spilled from their offices last week, the couple spoke for many in Seattle when they disagreed over the fairness of being singled out.

“Why is it fair that I (would) work so hard to get to that point and now I’m forced to pay more?” asked Kate Walter.

But her husband said he liked the idea, even when asked by a KUOW reporter if he would feel the same at the point he makes a quarter million.

“Yes, I would. There’s zero (state) income tax here, so I absolutely would,” he said.

The new tax, passed unanimously by the nine-member Seattle City Council last week, is just one of several attempts by cities to address their deteriorating livability crises since the tech companies became magnets for high earners. Their fast mounting wealth can force out just about everyone else.

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