City council considers repealing head tax; Seattle residents have mixed reactions



SEATTLE - “Having this happen today, surprised me,” said Marianne McCrary who was one of the more than 17,000 people who signed a petition to get a repeal of the city’s controversial employee tax on the ballot.  A majority of Seattle's city council announced they will repeal the tax, less than a month after they unanimously approved it.

Q13 met with McCrary Sunday as she celebrated the No Tax on Jobs group. Today, she says the city council may have listened, but it’s not enough.

“I don’t have much trust, they’re just doing that to save them for being re-elected,” said McCrary.

Fellow Seattle resident, Matthew Perkins agrees.

“It is a win, but this is also a little too little too late,” said Perkins.

He says he’ll be running for Bruce Harrell’s second district seat because he’s tired of the way Seattle’s city council is operating.

“I feel like there’s not a voice for the people in Seattle,” said Perkins.

Fighting to let Seattleites have their voices heard, co-chair of Speak Out Seattle, one of the main groups supporting No Tax on Jobs, Elisabeth James, says her reactions are mixed today.

“I wasn’t disappointed, I felt like, well they’re listening. I wouldn’t say succeeded, I have no idea what was there motive, I just got involved with this to protect my city,” said James.

The talk among these Seattleites is that regular people getting involved is what gave the city council a wake-up call.

“I’m so surprised that the head tax is what did it,” said McCrary.

McCrary says she thinks the issues struck a chord well outside the business community because homelessness affects everyone.

“They can visibly see the issue, and they can visibly see it’s not getting better,” said McCrary.

Those visible issues caused a visible anger among the people who live in Seattle, who say they deserve better and they’ll keep fighting for it.

“There’s still more to do, this is not the end by any stretch,” said McCrary.