A new independent economic assessment of Seattle’s finances arrived this week, and the city’s response drew immediate ridicule from KIRO fill-in host Mike Lewis.
Lewis had a message after Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson signed an executive order creating the Resilient Seattle Economy Task Force.
“We are the Cape Canaveral of launching task forces,” Lewis said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “We will launch a task force with virtually no provocation from the public. We are a task force city.”
All eggs in the JumpStart basket
The report was produced by the economic consulting firm Formation and commissioned by the Seattle Office of Economic Development. It concluded Seattle is dangerously reliant on a handful of large tech employers to fund its budget, particularly through the city’s JumpStart payroll tax. The tax targets companies with payrolls above roughly $9 million, and is projected to raise approximately $500 million this year…