​Seattle faces multiple, overlapping crises which the COVID-19 pandemic has both deeply exposed and greatly exacerbated. Our communities cannot afford to live and thrive in our city, our small businesses are struggling to hold on, and thousands of our neighbors are forced to sleep outside in one of the richest cities in the world every night.

In a serious step towards addressing and mitigating these inequities and challenges our city faces, the Seattle City Council passed a progressive tax in January 2021 known as “Jumpstart.” This revenue source and spending plan will provide hundreds of millions of dollars for crucial programs, including affordable and deeply affordable housing, small business financial relief, rental assistance, and vital support services for Seattle’s unhoused community by taxing businesses with high-salary employees and payrolls exceeding $7 million dollars.

In a callous display of disregard for the tremendous hardship so many in our community are facing, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce has made its mission to obfuscate and litigate against this urgently needed progressive revenue source, while devoting its resources and advocacy to backing the anti-homeless, pro-austerity charter amendment 29--which, unlike the Jumpstart tax, did not hold up in court and offered no revenue to actually solve the housing crisis.

We call on the Chamber of Commerce to immediately drop its litigation against this progressive revenue source so that we can all focus on creating real solutions! We need these funds to build up the deeply affordable housing that countless studies, consultants, and community members have told us we need.