Payroll tax: ‘Critical to the future of Seattle’

Re: “Seattle Chamber sues over city’s new ‘JumpStart’ payroll tax on big businesses,” [Dec. 8, Business]:

Naive though it may sound, I suggest the board of the Downtown Seattle Association and the board of the Downtown Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce take a walk around Green Lake and maybe a slow drive across Dearborn Street from Sam Smith Park to Rainier Avenue South to get a vague notion why the payroll tax is critical to the future of Seattle.

Until the corporate decision-makers, the people who have been the beneficiaries of the surge in high-wealth jobs and growing fortunes, are willing to recognize their responsibility for recuperating a city where everyone can sleep inside at night, we will continue the growth of tent cities.

Truly, it’s not that simple and just that simple.

Victoria Kaplan, Seattle