Seattle is already struggling with empty office towers, fleeing businesses, and rising urban decay — but Blaze Media co-founder Glenn Beck warns that the city’s latest proposal could make things worse than they already are.
“In Seattle, nearly one-third of the office space is empty — 35% at the core. More than a quarter of all of the office space all across the city is vacant. Entire buildings are dark at noon. Elevators that carried thousands of engineers and lawyers and designers now move janitors and security guards through hollow floors where the lights never come on,” Glenn explains on “The Glenn Beck Program.”
“This is New Orleans without the hurricane. It’s not war damage. This is policy that is doing this. And the response from the city leadership shows something that is far more than incompetence. It is intentional destruction,” he adds.
This “intentional destruction” has come in the form of a new tax being imposed in Seattle.
“You make over a million dollars, … 9.9% extra tax,” Glenn says.
“They don’t have any understanding of how an economy works. Seattle’s incoming mayor, Katie Wilson, proposed what she calls a solution now to just the hollowing out of Seattle,” he says, before explaining what he would do instead.
“Here’s what I would do. Fix the problems. Get the poop off the streets. Get the people pooping off the streets. Get the drugs off the streets. Clean the city up, and you won’t have this problem,” he explains. “But that’s not the solution.”
“Seattle is not known for technology. It’s known now for open-air drug markets, sidewalk encampments, retail theft treated as a nuisance instead of a crime. A regulatory climate where starting, running, or expanding a business requires navigating a maze of taxes and mandates,” he says.
“You feel like a criminal if you’re going to run a business. You feel, you know the city is against you, and the state is against you. Even now, Seattle businesses face one of the country’s most aggressive business and occupation taxes,” he continues, pointing out that the regulations caused businesses to leave, and in turn the city decided to start taxing owners of vacant buildings on top of their already steep taxes.
When companies noticed these insane regulations, they understandably chose to take their business elsewhere.
“The employees all followed; the buildings emptied out,” Glenn says.
Now, residents are trying to sell their homes — and they’re getting taxed for it.
“Instead of asking why companies are leaving,” Glenn continues, “city leaders ask a different question entirely. How do we punish the people creating jobs? How can we make their life even harder?”
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