TENSIONS MOUNT AS SEATTLE DEBATES BUSINESS TAX FOR HOMELESS

Seattle’s latest tax proposal to combat homelessness takes aim at large businesses such as Amazon that have helped drive the city’s economic boom.

But the measure has sparked intense debate — even shouting matches in otherwise reserved Seattle — over who should pay to solve the housing crisis exacerbated by that growth.

The City Council is proposing a tax on employee hours to raise about $75 million a year for affordable housing and homelessness services. Nearly 600 large employers making at least $20 million in gross revenues would pay about $500 a year per worker.

Amazon, the