What’s a more stunning indictment of an elected body, making horrible policy on weak principles or, when confronted with an angry public after doing that, doing a 180 and repealing the policy? The Seattle City Council will have done both when later today by most reports they will repeal the tax on jobs they passed only a month ago. Taxing jobs makes no sense. Jobs are good and by every measure have a net benefit on the economy by creating more income opportunities for people. I’ve been over most of the arguments, including the fact that the proposed tax wouldn’t buy much anyway; we’d be better off using it to help people pay their rent.

There is lots of speculation of course about what this sudden change means. It will take a while for that to become clear. But one thing for sure, it shows how utterly incoherent the City Council has become as a decision making body. Remember all those passionate speeches about how the Council needed to stand up to big business to “solve” the problem of homelessness?

When Amazon said they were pausing expansion plans in Seattle Councilmembers took offense, with Councilmember Lorena Gonzalez saying,

Greater shared responsibility equals greater shared prosperity for all, businesses and residents alike.

Now she says,

I am deeply troubled and disappointed by the political tactics utilized by a powerful faction of corporations that seem to prioritize corporations over people.  The consequences of delaying action will be felt most profoundly by the thousands of people currently suffering while seeking stable housing and emergency shelter in our City.

Yet Gonzalez will vote to repeal the tax she said was about sharing responsibility.

If anyone was wondering why it’s time for the Council to be replaced this is the best evidence of why; they can’t make deals or decisions and are simply blown about by whatever the see right in front of them at the moment. The tax on jobs is a bad idea. It should be repealed. But why was it ever passed and signed into law in the first place. What is true about the tax on jobs is true about Mandatory Inclusionary Zoning (MIZ); bad policy passed for the wrong reasons (to punish a business sector), with downsides (like pushing up the costs of all housing), and very little benefit (not much subsidized housing for the trouble).