It was a full day for the Council, and beyond passing the budget the Council members did several other things as well.
Continue readingTag: head tax
Council still working on a plan to get to a head tax
On Tuesday this week, the Council voted down an employee-hours tax (aka a “head tax”). In doing so, several Council members who voted “no” voiced their support in theory for a head tax and committed to working on a process with a broad group of stakeholders to evaluate a head tax — and other progressive revenue-raising options — and come back with a specific proposal. On Wednesday, Council member Gonzalez began circulating a draft resolution to that extent, which she hopes to have the Council approve on Monday.
Continue readingEmployee-hours tax fails. 2018 budget explodes.
Budget Chair Lisa Herbold bet big by putting the employee-hours tax into her revised balancing package, knowing that it didn’t have majority support from her colleagues. She lost that bet today, and with that her budget plan fell apart.
Continue readingRevised budget “balancing package” released; showdown imminent over head tax
Monday afternoon Budget chair Lisa Herbold released her “revised balancing package” proposal for the 2018 city budget. Tuesday morning she begins to lead her fellow Council members in deliberations and votes on the items in the package. The big contentious issue, the employee-hours tax (or “HOMES tax,” or “head tax”), is still in the package, and in fact will be the first item up for discussion and vote. It won’t be pretty.
Continue readingCouncil continues to refine 2018 budget
Yesterday the City Council spent most of the day looking at 59 proposals to further refine the proposed budget for 2018. And a few of them got heated.
Continue readingNotes from Monday’s Council meetings
Today’s meetings were short and to the point.
Continue readingBudget balancing package unveiled
This morning, Budget chair Lisa Herbold unveiled her first-round “balancing package” of Council-proposed changes to the Mayor’s 2018 budget. And it was not without controversy.
Continue readingA Close Look at the Proposed Head Tax
As part of officially introducing the employee hours tax (aka the “head tax”) into the budget process last week, Council members O’Brien, Harris-Talley and Sawant submitted draft legislation for it. Now that it’s something concrete and not just a set of talking points, let’s look at what it says, and what it means.
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