Seattle’s proposed delivery tax would hurt small Latino businesses

This month, it’s time to have a good time the contributions of our nation’s thriving Hispanic communities, together with their entrepreneurs.

October additionally marks the beginning of the Seattle Metropolis Council’s funds deliberations. This time, the town proposes a fee on online orders. Whether or not the council decides to label this coverage a tax or a price, we on the Seattle Latino Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce oppose it, and we needs to be clear that metropolis leaders are as soon as once more asking those that dwell in Seattle to pay extra at a time when many companies and households can’t afford it. 

Actually, it’s now commonplace that every 12 months’s metropolis funds discussions focus extra on insurance policies that hamper our group’s capability to realize monetary safety and assist the native financial system by way of new and better taxes on companies, and now, supply companies.

Including a tax on supply companies is the incorrect solution to clear up the town’s funds challenges, particularly given the expansion in Hispanic-owned companies, lots of whom depend on deliveries to develop and maintain their buyer base. This extra price will elevate the worth of supply in our metropolis after we must be doing the other. 

As founder and president of the Seattle Latino Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, I’ve heard wonderful tales of creativity, resilience and, maybe most significantly, enthusiasm from our member companies, individuals who labored to maintain their doorways open by way of the worst of COVID-19 and stay in enterprise at present. Many of those companies are rising — a development that tracks with nationwide information. 

In response to a 2022 report by the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative, Latino-owned companies within the U.S. usually tend to say they’ve recovered from the pandemic and are performing higher than earlier than. 

So once I hear a couple of new price, primarily a tax on supply companies, it considerations me significantly. I do know this can have an adversarial affect on our chamber’s member companies, their staff and the households they assist.

Everyone knows that when prices go up, prospects pull again and native companies lose. And, a brand new tax on supply isn’t occurring in isolation — Seattle prospects are already going through skyrocketing price will increase for supply companies ensuing from new metropolis legal guidelines and rules going into impact quickly. Collectively, all of those prices are possible to present individuals pause earlier than ordering a meal or shopping for on-line. 

Taxes like this have an effect on our members and all companies in Seattle. It raises the query: Do we actually want so as to add a tax on supply companies to stability Seattle’s funds?

Metropolis leaders suppose so. However voters aren’t so positive. 

In response to the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s newest set up of The Index, a majority of Seattle voters proceed to really feel that taxes in Seattle are too excessive for the extent of companies the town gives.

The brand new tax is senseless after we contemplate the constructive affect of app-based supply platforms that guarantee underserved, aged and disabled group members proceed to learn from app-based supply from their native retailer, favourite restaurant and even their native meals banks.

We ask the mayor and Metropolis Council to assist companies that deal with the general public’s considerations, like the continued public questions of safety which can be forcing companies to shut and residents to go away the town — not enact one more coverage that drives up prices for purchasers who assist Hispanic small companies and supply helpful revenue for unbiased contractors of all backgrounds.

The town ought to honor our continued contributions to Seattle as an alternative of making a brand new impediment for our companies which can be nonetheless recovering from COVID and the impacts of inflation.  We have to use present income to construct up our metropolis and discover methods to encourage Latino companies to develop and succeed.