Good afternoon, everyone.
Thank you for being here with us for this important press conference where faith leaders and activists are going to explain in their own words why they believe the Amazon tax legislation that Council Member Morales and I are co-sponsoring and that the council is discussing right now is so crucial for our city and for us as a society.
We have seen the economic recession unfolding in such a dramatic fashion that now economists are predicting that it is probably in some ways going to be worse than the Great Depression.
Certainly we are heading into depression like unemployment.
We are seeing tens of thousands of workers and hence probably about now hundreds of thousands of people in Seattle Asking a question as to whether they can actually pay for food and essential needs of their families, let alone rent.
Tens of thousands in our city have almost overnight lost their jobs.
And when workers are living paycheck to paycheck, loss of a job and loss of a paycheck means financial destitution.
And it is in that context, on top of the existing housing affordability crisis that we are here today with the majority of Seattle's working people facing a triple emergency of public health crisis, a housing affordability crisis and now a jobs crisis.
And that is why this legislation is so urgent because it will, first of all, fund $200 worth of assistance, cash assistance to up to 100,000 of our neediest households in our city.
And then starting next year, it could raise $500 million for a massive expansion of social housing and Green New Deal programs related to housing such that it would create thousands, and I'm not exaggerating, thousands of good-paying union jobs, all the way from social services to construction.
And all of this revenue would be raised by taxing the wealthiest in our city, meaning the people who own the largest and the most profitable corporations.
And that is why we have called this the Amazon tax, to make it crystal clear that this is a tax that falls on the corporations that have paid the least and nothing close to their fair share in this city with the nation's most regressive tax system.
It is not a tax that will fall on workers.
It is not a tax that will fall on nonprofits, public employers, or grocery stores.
It is not a tax that will fall on the employees of the corporations that will be taxed.
And so it is as progressive a tax as we could possibly have.
And we already have an economic imperative.
Speaking as an economist, You know, we should be very clear that there is no economic recovery without taxing big business to create public sector jobs while expanding social programs like affordable housing.
This is Keynesianism 101. There would have been no recovery for the U.S. economy out of the Great Depression had the militant labor movement not provided the impetus for a new deal at that time that created jobs through public works programs.
This is the only way that the economy can recover from a recession.
There is no magic wand that big business can wave, that the billionaires can wave and say that it's going to happen.
So whether they like it or not, this is our only avenue, not only for economic recovery, but also for the thousands, tens of thousands of families that are struggling right now.
And in addition to that economic reality, we have faith leaders and activists with here today to explain to us that this is a moral imperative.
And we have faiths from all our community members that are represented here today.
So I wanted to invite Reverend Angela Ying, who is the senior pastor of the Bethany United Church of Christ, who will explain how many people have joined from the faith community and why they are doing this.
Welcome, Angela.
Thank you.
Good afternoon.
We, as faith leaders from Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Sikh, and all journeys of faith, are calling on you, our city council, to adopt and approve this tax Amazon legislation as is, sponsored by Council Member Shama Sawant and Council Member Tammy J. Morales.
Our city is facing a triple emergency, the COVID public health emergency, the ongoing housing emergency, and now a jobs and income emergency.
This is the time.
This is the time as no other for real leadership with real action.
We do not need talk, conservative or liberal.
We have a moral mandate, an imperative to enact a tax Amazon legislation for the people of this city.
as senior pastor, and more importantly, as a mother, a sister, a daughter, neighbor, my faith and my belief in the love and justice of people beckons me to come forward today and to call you to action to enact this legislation.
As human beings, we share the great commandment to love God and to love our neighbor as ourselves.
We are called to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with God and one another.
The Sawant Morales legislation is a lifeline to the people, providing immediate and emergency aid to up to 100,000 vulnerable households.
Tens of thousands of Seattle workers are out of jobs.
And many frontline workers are risking and sacrificing out of love their own lives for others.
So do the math.
The wealthiest top 2% of big businesses can afford to pay this very modest tax.
The other 98% are exempt.
Amazon and the wealthiest have the means to fund urgently needed assistance and long-term funding for affordable social housing.
Thousands of desperately needed union and new green jobs and the Green New Deal.
You and I know that the working people in each of your constituencies on the city council are being taxed more than the billionaires and the wealthiest, that Washington State shamefully has the most regressive tax system in the country.
So during these unprecedented times, there's no room for greed.
I have seen firsthand and have buried enough poor and hungry Lazarus in our communities.
So together, we need to change this.
We clearly need you.
the Seattle City Council to lead and pass this legislation as is.
Your swift and timely approval of this legislation will provide immediate COVID-19 relief, housing, jobs, and the Green New Deal in our city for our people as no other legislation can or will.
Thank you, Chair and Council Member Mosqueda, for standing with the unions as well as not repealing the 2018 tax.
Thank you Council Members Sawant and Morales for co-sponsoring this life-giving tax Amazon legislation.
To Council Members Herboldt, Gonzalez, and Juarez who repealed the 2018 tax, you get the chance, unlike many, to truly make historic amends for the people who trusted you and elected you.
Enact this legislation.
To Council Member Lewis, we call you to stand with the hotel workers who voted for you and Council Member Strauss, newly on the council, who can make a difference for the people.
Thank you both.
And for Council Member Peterson, we ask that you please reconsider and turn around.
Do so for the sake of the most vulnerable and not the most privileged.
That, I tell my youth and my children, is true leadership.
Our situation is unprecedented.
Few, if any, city councils have had an opportunity to do so much good.
This is the time.
As faith leaders from all journeys of faith are calling on you, our city council, Seattle City Council, to adopt and approve this tax Amazon legislation as is.
So grace and peace be with you as you do so.
Thank you.
Thank you so much, Reverend Ying for those powerful words.
And I am really grateful to the 72 faith leaders and activists who have signed on to this joint letter, urging the city council to not only urgently pass the tax Amazon legislation, but also to not water it down.
And as Reverend Ying said, we have leaders from all journeys of faith who are in solidarity with us.
And so it is my great pleasure and honor to introduce Anila Afzali, Sister Anila, who is the founder and executive director of the American Muslim Empowerment Network, which is a new initiative of the Muslim Association of the Puget Sound, and who has been an activist for several years on the social justice front.
Welcome, Sister Anila.
Thank you so much, Council Member Chawant, and peace be upon you all.
Right now, we are in the blessed month of Ramadan, when over a billion Muslims across the globe fast from dawn to sunset.
This month is about getting closer to God, but also about increasing our gratitude for what we have and showing compassion for those who are less fortunate.
feeding the hungry and serving those in need.
That is why I'm joining my faith colleagues today, because this legislation does exactly that.
We have heard heartbreaking stories of those suffering because of COVID-19.
In response to this crisis, the Muslim Association of Puget Sound launched a relief plan that included providing rental, utility, food, grocery, medical, and other assistance to anyone in need.
We have spent well over $100,000 in just a few weeks to help hundreds of individuals and families thus far.
And we continue to feed those who are hungry, even as we fast.
And I know so many other faith communities, mutual aid groups, and more are also doing their part in this crisis.
We need big business in our city to step up and pay their fair share as well, especially as we have the most regressive tax system in the country.
As faith leaders, we are here supporting this legislation because it's the right, the moral thing to do.
our faith values of helping those in need, our democratic values of government by and for the people, and our human values of fairness and equity mandate that we support this legislation.
Without action today, so many of our fellow sisters and brothers are not going to make it out of this crisis.
And the crisis we are facing, as you've heard, is threefold.
The public health emergency, the ongoing housing and homelessness crisis, and now a jobs and income emergency as well.
This legislation provides a necessary lifeline for the present, as well as supporting our city in the future.
We know it's not easy, and it will require bold leadership.
But we cannot have an economic recovery without bold action.
And without such action, this pandemic will exacerbate the growing gap between the haves and the have-nots in our city, state, and country.
At a time when tens of thousands of Seattle workers are out of jobs, when frontline workers are risking and sacrificing their lives for all of us, we need big businesses in our city to also do their part.
We need our city council to vote in support of this legislation.
We need the big businesses to pay their fair share to benefit all of us through the tax system the way the rest of us do.
If and when we pass this legislation, we can come out of this stronger and ensure that we uplift all of our fellow human beings.
That is what our faith commands us to do.
That is why I'm proud and honored to stand with fellow faith leaders in calling on the Seattle City Council to pass this legislation as is.
Thank you very much.
Sister Anila, thank you for those eloquent words about what the call of all religions is and that the Amazon tax on big business is strongly consistent with the message of compassion, as you explained, of all faiths and is consistent with the values of our community and as Reverend Ying said, We are not looking for talk from our council members.
We want action.
We are not looking for talk from the mayor.
We want action.
And in that spirit, I wanted to also convey my best wishes and best wishes from my office and Socialist Alternative to all our Muslim community members during the holy month of Ramzan and really welcome their solidarity with us in this important mission.
It's a really important mission and it coincides with this important religious month for our Muslim neighbors.
And in that spirit, I wanted to invite Rabbi David Bassio, leader of the Kadima Reconstructionist Community, who's also been standing with us on many issues, all the way from renters issues to taxes on big business.
Welcome, Rabbi David.
Thank you so much for having me, Shama, and to my fellow religious leaders, peace be upon you.
As-salamu alaykum and Ramadan Kareem.
Let me begin by acknowledging the Duwamish people whose land I'm speaking from today and the communities of color that particularly black communities in whose neighborhood I'm residing in District 3. Today, I'm speaking about the renewed possibility of taxing the wealthiest 2% of corporations in the city of Seattle for the sake of funding public health, safety, and housing, which I hope we can dutifully acknowledge are all the same issue.
intricately connected, as we see so clearly in this time of public health crisis, intricately connected to the idea of dignity for all of us.
Dignity, the Hebrew word kavod, is a core value to our work as Jews, as people of faith, and as humans.
Our Torah, my Torah, teaches us that we are created in the image of God, B'tzelem Elohim.
that all humans, no matter their immigration status, color of their skin or economic standing, are divine and are equal and are equal in our creation.
And yet we know that is not how we experience this reality, with some experiencing the extreme riches that our society in its current structure has produced and others fighting to stay alive in the poorest classes of our society.
I bring the wisdom of Shlomo HaMelech Ben David HaMelech, or as known in English as King Solomon, as he recites in Proverbs 14, 31. They who withhold what is due to the poor sticks it to their maker.
They who shows honor and dignity for the poor brings grace to all of creation.
I say to you, council members district residents of all councils, please let your voices be heard to your council members, council members, please come to see that tax thing.
the wealthiest for the sake of the most vulnerable in our society is within the dignity that we want to hold for all to correct the wrongs that have that exist in our society where we are called in our Torah to redistribute the wealth every seven years and every 50th years let the shofar blast be heard let the trumpets be heard this year.
Let this year be a year of bringing wealth to all, and that knowing that all of our wealth, all of our prosperity is intricately connected.
That the doctors, that the grocery workers, that the nurses and techs in the hospitals, their health depends on our health right now and forevermore.
Let us bring social housing, a Green New Deal, and taxation on these 2% of corporations as a reality here in our city.
Thank you to all those who stand with us and blessings of return for all those who do not yet.
Rabbi David, we're so grateful for you for sharing why the social justice that can be made into a reality by this modest, very modest tax on big business resonates with the message of the Jewish traditions.
And Rabbi David specifically made a mention of the Duwamish people.
In our communities of color and the question of correcting the wrongs, and I think there is no bigger example no more potent example of where the wrongs need to be corrected.
I should the historic inequality that has been inflicted on our working class communities of color.
And today we are lucky to have Reverend Robert Jeffrey, senior of the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, who has for long, for decades, fought alongside communities of color, alongside working class people in the Central District, and has been on the front lines with us on many battles.
So welcome, Reverend Jeffrey.
Greetings to all of you.
I don't know if you're not.
Can you hear me?
Yes.
Greetings to all of you.
Can you hear me?
Yes, we can hear you.
I just want to say that the concept
We can't hear you now, Reverend Jeffrey.
We seem to have lost Reverend Jeffrey.
Why don't we give him a minute to see if he can get back in?
OK.
I'm going to try calling Reverend Jeffrey and see if we can get him back in.
Hey, this is Jonathan.
So we're trying to get you back into the zoom call.
Okay.
Do you want to just speak through the phone and we'll try to connect you?
Uh, hold on just a moment.
We have Reverend Jeffrey on the phone.
Why don't you say a sentence and then see if people can hear you.
Okay.
Robert Jeffrey, New Hope Missionary Baptist Church, Washington.
Okay, looks like you're back on the Zoom call.
So I'm gonna turn off the phone.
Why don't I just do it from the phone call, from the...
Okay.
Can people hear Reverend Jeffrey?
Give me a thumbs up if you can hear him okay.
Go ahead, Reverend.
Okay.
I'm just delighted to be on the call.
I'm sorry I'm having computer problems here, but I support wholeheartedly Representative Sawant and all of those who are right now fighting for the life both of the poor and of our country.
The concept of rugged individualism is being shown to be a very hapless concept in the midst of a global pandemic.
And it's always been hapless as it relates to the poor and those who are being destroyed by by the consequences of the cynical insensitivity of those who believe that they're getting rich all by themselves and that they're not standing on the shoulders and heads of those at the bottom of the barrel.
We can see through this pandemic that we are, as a culture and a society, standing on the heads and shoulders of men and women who are getting little or no pay.
We're at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to retirement, bottom of the barrel when it comes to health insurance.
Many of these people are working without health insurance, working without any kind of protections, rent protections, or even job protections.
They're the ones who are carrying our food to our doors.
They're the ones who are doing our garbage, and they're the ones who are manning the grocery store counters.
And many of them are working day to day, not even knowing if they can keep their jobs.
This is a commentary on where we are as a society.
And it's a commentary on where we are and what corporate America is doing to this country and to this world.
The time has come for corporate America to pay up.
It's time to come for wealth to be given or distributed to those equally who are doing the work of keeping the society going.
Global hunger, human displacement has to end.
And I'm standing with those of you who are calling for this to end.
And I'm standing with all of you who are ready to stand on the front lines and demand that we look for a better way.
So thank you, Councilman Swann, and all of you who are on this call.
I'm sorry that I couldn't get my Zoom to work correctly, but I am with you in this struggle.
God bless you all.
Thank you, Reverend Jeffrey.
And please don't apologize.
We are all dealing with technological hiccups here every day.
It was so wonderful to have all the voices of the religious leaders and activists alongside us.
Jonathan will now open it up for media questions.
I think we have time to take two or three questions.
And then, of course, I welcome media to ask us questions offline.
Feel free to ask questions to any of the speakers.
Thank you.
And if there are media with questions, would you please raise your hand and I will unmute you and you can ask your question.
We'll give media a minute or so.
And if there are no questions, we'll just conclude from here.
But let's let's see if there are any questions from any of the media.
We have been joined by a couple since we began the press conference.
I'm not seeing any hand raising.
Would you like to wrap things up, Chama, and we'll conclude the press conference.
Yes, thank you, Jonathan.
And thank you members of media who joined us.
And as I said before, we welcome any questions you have offline.
If you have questions for The faith leaders who are here, feel free to send them to my office, and we will direct them to our community members here who are here with us.
Thank you so much to Reverend Angela Ying, Sister Anila Afzali, Reverend Robert Jeffrey, and Rabbi David Basior.
And I will just end on the words that Reverend Jeffrey used.
It is time for corporate economy to pay up.
So let's continue fighting, and let's win the Amazon tax.
Thank you, everybody.
And for the clergy who did speak here, all the faith leaders, if you have written down your comments and you're comfortable submitting them to the office, we may want to use them.
Please send them to me.
And then secondly, I will off of this conference send you all information on how you can sign in for public comment tomorrow.
The Select Budget Committee meets at 10 a.m.
You go online at 8 a.m.
and sign up to get onto the public comment list, and we encourage people to set your alarms, get up, sign up for 8 a.m.
commentary, and then you'll be allowed to give your comment at the 10 a.m.
Budget Committee meeting.
Your words are so powerful and meaningful, the words you all shared with us today.
We would love it if the full committee heard from you all tomorrow morning as well.
So thank you very much.
And we will now conclude this press conference.