成人X站

SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES

Dori: Durkan’s Uber and Lyft tax benefits politicians, not drivers

Sep 24, 2019, 7:05 AM

Uber and Lyft...

(AP)

(AP)

The more I look into Jenny Durkan’s proposal to tax you and me 51 cents every time we use ride-share services — like Uber and Lyft — the more confused I become.

My wife and I will sometimes take a rideshare to Seattle. And we sometimes take a rideshare from our home north of the city through Seattle, and get dropped off somewhere outside the city. Which of those rides am I going to be taxed for? The ride that ends in the city, or the one that ends outside of the city, or both?

There are so many things that are infuriating about this proposed tax. For one thing, Durkan says this will provide the Uber and Lyft drivers with a living wage. Huh? If the drivers are not making enough money, they’ll stop driving. No one is forcing them to drive. There have got to be many thousands of drivers throughout the city — it’s very lucrative. I personally know a couple of rideshare drivers who make over $50,000 a year doing that full-time. They love it because they can make their own schedule; they’re hustlers who work really hard. This has been a phenomenally successful industry in spite of government, certainly not because of government.

So why is Jenny Durkan really getting involved?

Dori: By doubling cost of Uber, Lyft, Seattle City Council will have blood on its hands

Ding, ding, ding — she says that $56 million of the money will also go to the streetcar project. That is yet another mass transit criminal enterprise. All the streetcar does is gridlock downtown even more to serve an absurdly small number of people. A lot of streetcar companies — and politicians, I’m sure — are getting filthy rich this way. Remember when they accidentally bought the wrong size of streetcars for the tracks? That was a $50 million mistake, yet no one in government got punished for that.

Additionally, $52 million from this tax will go toward affordable housing.

What will the rideshare drivers get? They’ll get $17 million.

That’s $17 million out of $126 million. So this really isn’t about the ride-share drivers having a living wage at all. The public officials are getting a piece of this graft and corruption. Whether it’s in power, control, or actual cash, you know politicians get something out of it.

The other outrage is that if you have a $3 trip to go 15 blocks downtown, now you have to add another 51 cents to the 24-cent-per-trip tax already in place. Now you have a 75-cent tax on your $3 ride — that is a 25-percent tax. Number runners in the mob are the only ones who ever get a 25-percent anything.

An op-ed in the Seattle Times this weekend was headlined, “.” Really? A “small tax?” Let’s say you’re one of the growing number of people who tries to live their life without a car in Seattle. Let’s say you use a ride-share three times a day. That’s $1.50 of this new tax per day. That adds up to $450 a year.

Everything is a “small tax” when you’re wealthy. But for the lower-middle class, working class and low-income, $450 is a fortune. To call it anything else is outrageous.

A closeup of an Everett Police Department vehicle. (Photo courtesy of 成人X站 7)...

Frank Lenzi

Everett police search for missing teenage girl

Everett police are searching for a missing teenage girl.

6 minutes ago

king county fentanyl...

James Lynch and Frank Lenzi

Authorities say man had enough fentanyl to kill everyone in King County

A man who prosecutors say had enough fentanyl to kill everyone in King County is due in court next month.

6 minutes ago

FILE - Ed Martin speaks at an event hosted by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., at the Capitol in Washington...

Associated Press

US Justice Department pardon lawyer pledges ‘hard look’ at plot to kidnap Michigan governor

DETROIT (AP) 鈥 The U.S. Justice Department’s new pardon attorney said he is going to take a 鈥渉ard look鈥 at two men who are serving long prison terms for leading a conspiracy to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. 鈥淥n the pardon front, we can’t leave these guys behind,鈥 Ed Martin Jr. said this week on […]

21 minutes ago

FILE - West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey speaks during a news conference at the Hubert Humphrey B...

Associated Press

Groups sue over West Virginia governor’s order on religious exemptions for school vaccines

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) 鈥 Two groups filed a lawsuit Friday over an executive order by West Virginia Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey granting religious exemptions from required school vaccinations. The American Civil Liberties Union’s West Virginia chapter and Mountain State Justice filed the lawsuit against the state Department of Health, its Bureau for Public Health and […]

31 minutes ago

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J....

Associated Press

Judge blocks another Trump executive order targeting a major law firm

WASHINGTON (AP) 鈥 A federal judge on Friday permanently blocked another of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting a major law firm, calling it unconstitutional retaliation designed to punish lawyers for their legal work that the White House does not like. The ruling from U.S. District Judge John Bates marks the second time this month […]

32 minutes ago

A banner with a photograph of President Donald Trump hangs near the entrance of the U.S. Department...

Associated Press

Privacy and hunger groups sue over USDA attempt to collect personal data of SNAP recipients

Privacy and hunger relief groups and a handful of people receiving food assistance benefits are suing the federal government over the Trump administration’s attempts to collect the personal information of millions of U.S. residents who use the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. The lawsuit filed in Washington, D.C., on Thursday says the U.S. Department of Agriculture […]

38 minutes ago

Dori: Durkan’s Uber and Lyft tax benefits politicians, not drivers