Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has a message for his metropolis’s tech giants: it’s time to reinvest locally.
Harrell, talking at an event Wednesday hosted by the Fremont Chamber of Commerce, stated Seattle’s massive corporations have a “ethical obligation to present again.”
The mayor particularly known as out Microsoft and Amazon, citing their annual earnings. “Microsoft … they made $88 billion final 12 months … they’ve an obligation to present again to society, as does Amazon,” he stated.
Harrell additionally described Seattle as a “metropolis of innovation,” and one which has grow to be a “nice launching pad and fertile grounds for giant corporations.”
“That’s an excellent factor,” he stated. “That’s not a foul factor.”
His feedback replicate a fragile steadiness confronted by Harrell and different metropolis leaders — guaranteeing that Seattle’s international tech firms proceed to bolster the financial system and tax base, whereas addressing the ripple effects on housing, transportation, and communities.
Harrell has delivered the same message since taking workplace in 2022.
“What I’ve tried to do as mayor is to say, with out ambiguity, that we worth their jobs,” he stated of Amazon, Seattle’s largest employer, in an interview with GeekWire earlier this year. “We additionally imagine in a tradition of accountability.”
During an appearance on the GeekWire Summit in 2022, Harrell urged the enterprise and tech business to get extra concerned in civic life to assist make enhancements within the metropolis.
“There’s simply loads of alternatives for you all to interact,” he stated, “and I’m only a name away to facilitate that engagement.”
Harrell, a former legal professional within the telecom business, is in search of re-election subsequent month. He’s going through off towards Katie Wilson, a progressive group organizer who received practically 51% of the vote within the August major.
The race is drawing national attention, partly as a result of contrasting profiles and campaigns between the incumbent and challenger.
Wilson was impressed to run after Seattle voters earlier this 12 months approved a measure making a publicly funded social housing developer, financed by a 5% tax on salaries above $1 million paid to workers working within the metropolis.
Harrell supported an alternative funding mechanism for social housing in Seattle. The proposed ordinance obtained financial support from Amazon and Microsoft.
The controversy over who ought to pay for metropolis companies — and the way a lot — underscores a broader rigidity between Seattle’s progressive tax ambitions and its reliance on the tech business’s prosperity.
Harrell briefly spoke about taxes throughout Wednesday’s occasion, noting how the town “misplaced 10,000 jobs from Amazon” following years of friction over tax coverage in Seattle. “That’s not a sustainable technique, simply to tax individuals,” he stated.
Nonetheless, Harrell earlier this 12 months supported a proposal that might protect smaller corporations from paying Seattle’s enterprise & occupation tax — whereas rising charges for bigger corporations.
Harrell was metropolis council president in 2018 when lawmakers approved — after which repealed — a controversial per-employee “head tax” on huge companies. The council in 2020 later handed the “JumpStart” payroll tax, which Wilson helped craft.
Talking to GeekWire final month, Wilson — whose platform is targeted on elevating extra income “from the wealthiest firms” — stated she goals to have a working relationship with Amazon and different tech corporations, calling them “crucial gamers in our metropolis and our financial system.”
Whereas tech dominates the Seattle financial system, Wilson is inquisitive about diversifying that focus. In a latest publish on Reddit, she cautioned {that a} heavy reliance on the tech sector might pose issues for Seattle down the street.
“We’ve actually been blithely driving the tech wave for the previous 15 years and I don’t suppose we will simply assume that can proceed,” she wrote.
On the occasion Wednesday, Harrell additionally mentioned public security and the town’s new high-tech operations center designed to assist officers battle crime in actual time.
The Actual Time Crime Middle (RTCC) pulls reside footage and knowledge from surveillance cameras and different sources right into a centralized command room staffed by analysts as much as 20 hours a day.
Critics, together with Wilson, have raised issues in regards to the federal authorities utilizing surveillance footage to focus on immigrants.
Seattle Police Division Captain James Britt stated earlier this 12 months that knowledge requests from exterior companies — together with federal regulation enforcement — are screened and should adjust to state and native legal guidelines. “We management the place all of our knowledge goes,” Britt said at a press occasion in July touting the RTCC.
Harrell reiterated the purpose on Wednesday, saying that third events can’t receive footage. He additionally famous different cities which have related methods in place.
“We’ve got really caught criminals due to the expertise,” he stated.
Harrell final month announced a “accountable AI plan” that gives pointers for Seattle’s use of synthetic intelligence and its assist of the AI tech sector as an financial driver.
