Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who took on Amazon and others over the years in an effort to tax big businesses, will not seek re-election to the Seattle City Council. Sawant, who… Read More
To suggest that Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan had a pressurized run as the Emerald City’s top elected official is to badly understate her tenure. Drafted into office after a disgraced… Read More
Just two weeks into 2020, the new Seattle City Council is already making good on its promise to take on Amazon, following an election battle between the tech giant and… Read More
Amazon is dramatically increasing its financial commitment to reshape politics in its hometown, in a move that signals a big shift for the tech giant. Amazon is spending an additional… Read More
For the first two decades of its life, Amazon avoided the political limelight. But over the past year, the Seattle tech giant has started raising its voice on a wide… Read More
It was another big year for tech, in Seattle and around the world. Amazon dominated headlines, this time with a high-profile HQ2 search and big acquisitions. Facebook came under scrutiny… Read More
2018 was a year of acronyms. We witnessed an overhyped search for HQ2, a flurry of IPOs and the passing of Seattle tech pioneer PGA: Paul G. Allen. It was… Read More
Two tech hubs, two crises of homelessness, two taxes on big business, two very different outcomes. San Francisco voters on Tuesday approved a new tax on the city’s top-grossing companies to… Read More
Imagine if rather than threatening to slow down operations in Seattle when faced with a tax on big business, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos championed the legislation. Would the controversial “head… Read More
We’re half-way through 2018 and so far in Seattle, the year has been defined by a fierce debate over how to address the city’s growing homelessness crisis. That debate reached… Read More
The dramatic defeat of a new business tax designed to alleviate Seattle’s dire homelessness crisis was seen as a victory by many in the business community. Reactions ranged from measured… Read More
After a year of deliberation and thought, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announced plans to back two philanthropic initiatives, potentially signaling a new chapter for the planet’s richest person. Bezos’ fortune… Read More
[Editor’s Note: TLDR is GeekWire’s tech news rundown show, hosted by Starla Sampaco. Watch today’s update above, subscribe to GeekWire on YouTube, check back weekday afternoons for more, and sign up for TLDR… Read More
Whatever bridge existed between Amazon and Seattle government has been slowly burning for weeks as the debate over a new tax on the city’s top-grossing companies raged on. The City… Read More
Seattle’s new per-employee tax on large businesses to fund affordable housing is officially dead, bringing an end to one of the most polarizing debates in city history. The City Council… Read More
Update: The council voted 7-2 to repeal the head tax. Read GeekWire’s full story here. Another heated debate is taking place at Seattle City Hall over the city’s response to the… Read More
Monday afternoon, as organizers prepared to submit a petition for a ballot initiative to overturn Seattle’s new head tax with more than double the 17,000 or so required signatures, they… Read More
Seattle plans to vote on legislation that would repeal the city’s new head tax Tuesday, less than a month after the City Council unanimously approved the controversial plan. But City… Read More
Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell has scheduled a special meeting Tuesday to consider repealing the so-called “head tax,” which passed unanimously in May. If the Council approves Harrell’s legislation and… Read More
Debate over Seattle’s controversial “head tax” often focuses on what the city is or isn’t doing about a surging homelessness problem in the city, and the obligation of Seattle’s businesses to… Read More
Redfin CEO Glenn Kelman paints a dystopian picture of San Francisco, where he lived for years before fleeing to Seattle. He describes a metropolis that was once diverse and bohemian… Read More
Three days after the Seattle City Council passed a head tax on large businesses, the editorial board of The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, thousands of miles away, made the extraordinary decision to weigh… Read More
It was fascinating to read that the creators of the “Will the last person leaving Seattle turn out the lights” billboard are having a “serious discussion” about bringing it back. This came… Read More
Phoenix is coming on strong. The Arizona city’s office of economic development has been hitting up Seattle companies with the promise of a “pro-business environment,” betting those businesses will want… Read More
Seattle is an innovator in a lot of things — from speciality coffee to cloud computing to commercial spacecraft. Could that innovation now spread to municipal tax codes? Seattle last… Read More
Amazon and Starbucks have donated $25,000 each to a referendum campaign on Seattle’s divisive new head tax, according to disclosure reports. Vulcan, the umbrella company for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s… Read More
Pierce County on Tuesday plans to introduce a new tax incentive program for employers looking to bring jobs to the county — a direct slap at the City of Seattle… Read More
Seattle-based sales automation startup Outreach announced a new $65 million funding round Monday — but its CEO, Manny Medina, also had another issue on his mind when GeekWire caught up with… Read More
The city of Tacoma, Wash., has long envied the big concentration of tech companies to the north, and Seattle’s head tax is providing a new opening for Tacoma and Pierce… Read More
A business coalition launched a campaign Friday to reject Seattle’s new “head tax,” a polarizing piece of legislation signed into law this week. The group has until mid-June to collect about… Read More