Capitol Hill Housing is accepting lease applications for affordable apartments in their 12th Ave Arts building on Capitol Hill. Units are reserved for those earning 60% or less of the area median income.
Category: Councilmember Licata
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Urban Politics #352: Seattle’s Minimum Wage makes us a World Class City
This week the Seattle City Council’s passage of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage legislation, Ord_124490, positions Seattle as a national leader in promoting sustainable economic development while also providing decent paying jobs. Seattle will show what a true world class city is: a city where all classes live in the same world, where they receive fair […]
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Councilmember Nick Licata Statement in Support of Minimum Wage Ordinance
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 6/2/2014
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Nick Licata Statement in Support of Minimum Wage Ordinance
Final Speech As Delivered
SEATTLE - Councilmember Nick Licata delivered the following speech today in support of the Council's adoption of a $15 per hour minimum wage:
Mario Savio once said, as he was being dragged away by the police for setting up a card table on a campus without a permit to provide civil rights pamphlets. "There's a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious-makes you so sick at heart-that you can't take part. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working."
Savio said that 50 years ago, but it's true today as well. That's how the fast food workers acted exactly one year ago in Seattle when they walked off their jobs to be free from their exploitation. And that is a powerful word, filled with personal accusation. But it is not personal, it is a simple condition that has accompanied the growth of our market economy since the 1980's. The consolidation of capital into fewer and fewer hands, has dramatically transformed the dynamics of this democracy.
Our citizens, and I'm not talking about legal status here, I'm talking about the basic relationship of people to their government, have seen - not only their wealth diminish but their political power as well. And with the decline of their influence over their government they have seen their wages stagnate while corporate profits have piled up ever higher. In fact, the three largest employers of low-wage workers have all seen large profit increases in the last few years and are all more profitable than they were before the Great Recession.
The legislation we pass today is just one small step to strike a fair and sustainable path toward our city's and our nation's prosperity. To those who have said that the sky will fall, I assure them - the sun will continue to rise. Except when there is daylight, we will see fewer people living hand to mouth.
And there is' much more to be done! But I can think of no other city with better political and community leadership to passionately and pragmatically continue to close the income and wealth gap. And in doing so, Seattle will show what a true world class city is: A city where all the classes live in the same world - where they receive fair and livable compensation for an honest days' work.
We have much to be proud of. We should celebrate; we should all celebrate, because we have made the world a little better for all of us, owners and workers alike. Thanks to all who have worked so hard to get us to today's victory, a victory that will be heard around this nation.
We are here today thanks, first and foremost, to the fast food workers who walked off their jobs a year ago in Seattle and even before that across the nation. They risked their jobs to tum this nation around. To tum it from placing investor returns above the basic needs of our citizens.
However, to date, not one city has adopted $15 an hour - except Seattle. Others must follow. But it is not easy path to go down. As witnessed by how few are on it. It is also true, that the profits of the largest businesses have soared while worker wages have stagnated. In 1965, CEOs made 20.1 times the pay of the average worker. By 2012, that ratio was more than 10 times larger: CEOs made 273 times the pay of the average worker in 2012. As a result families are living on wages that are barely above the poverty level.
These are facts. And there are other facts - which we must face up to. We do not have magic wand. But we do have leaders. I have stood with the democratically elected leaders of over 10,000 organized Seattle laborers - in supporting the plan before us. I stood with them, because they struggled hard for every word in that agreement. They wanted much more. As did I; and as do many of you. I will continue to stand with them. I acknowledge their hard work. And I will work to duplicate their victory, in cities across the nation. And as such, I will not break ranks with them and I will continue to support what they have agreed to - in the plan as it is before us, neither water downed and nor altered.
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City Council Approves $15/hour Minimum Wage in Seattle
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 6/2/2014
Councilmember Sally J. Clark
Council President Tim Burgess
Councilmember Sally Bagshaw
Councilmember Jean Godden
Councilmember Bruce Harrell
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Mike O'Brie...
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Call for Films
Are you a filmmaker? Submit your work to Northwest Film Forum for screening in their Local Sightings program by June 30th and their Children's Film Festival Seattle by October 1st.
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Councilmember Licata Statement on Minimum Wage Committee Vote
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 5/29/2014
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Licata Statement on Minimum Wage Committee Vote
SEATTLE - Councilmember Nick Licata issued the following statement in response to the City Council's Minimum Wage and Income Inequality Committee's vote to raise Seattle's minimum wage to $15 an hour:
"The passage today of Seattle's $15 minimum wage legislation is a national game changer. Seattle, and other cities, are taking direct action to close our nation's huge income gap because the Federal and state governments have failed to do so. Seattle's new law opens the way for many workers to earn enough to meet their basic needs. It will raise their standard of living and by putting more dollars into our economy, stimulate greater business opportunities. By significantly raising the minimum wage, Seattle's prosperity will be shared by more people and create a sustainable model for continued growth.
"I am currently attending meetings in Chicago of the national Democratic Municipal Officials, to discuss how Seattle's success can be repeated in other cities.At the end of June, I will be attending similar meetings in New York with the national Local Progress organization. Without a doubt, we are witnessing a national surge of municipal officials who are demanding that we cannot continue to slip into a third class country with a shrinking middle class and families being pushed into poverty.
"The next critical step for Seattle to take is to create an Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, to ensure that all businesses are being treated equally under our labor laws. We cannot expect responsible businesses that are treating their employees fairly to be at a competitive disadvantage with those businesses that are not administering fair labor practices. I look forward to the creation of this new office at the start of next year."
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Unanimous Committee Vote on New Minimum Wage and on to Full Council on Monday.
The passage today of Seattle’s $15 minimum wage legislation is a national game changer. Seattle, and other cities, are taking direct action to close our nation’s huge income gap because the Federal and state governments have failed to do so. Seattle’s new law opens the way for many workers to earn enough to meet their […]
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Urban Politics #351: Fair Funding for Metro Transit
Can the regressive sales tax increase in the Mayor's proposed Metro funding plan be avoided?
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Councilmembers Licata, Sawant Announce Proposal to Maintain Metro
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 5/19/2014
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Kshama Sawant
Councilmembers Licata, Sawant Announce Proposal to Maintain Metro
SEATTLE - Councilmember Nick Licata and Councilmember Kshama Sawant and individuals representing working people, elderly, disabled, students, and people of color announced their plan today to address proposed cuts to Seattle Metro bus service. The proposed plan would use a Commercial Parking Tax increase and an Employer Head Tax to prevent devastating cuts to transit.
With the failure of Proposition 1 on April 22, King County Metro will implement the first of four planned rounds of bus service cuts. If all of these cuts happen, 16% of bus service, or 550,000 annual service hours, will disappear.
"If approved by Council, the Mayor’s proposal will go to the ballot in November, but not in time to prevent the first round of cuts. These initial cuts, and the funding that would kick in if ‘Plan C’ were approved, places a burden on poor and working people," said Licata. "There are other options, and they are options that don’t expose our most vulnerable populations to more regressive taxation. The City Council has the ability to implement an Employer’s Head Tax and increase the commercial parking tax to fund public transportation," Licata added. "If the City Council moves on this, we can prevent devastating cuts. I have asked our policy staff to research exactly how much revenue could be raised through these means, and to begin drafting legislation to introduce to the City Council."
During the past 25 years, Metro has increased its reliance on regressive taxation five times through raising the sales tax and Vehicle Licensing Fees. In addition, fares have also been raised four times in the past six years, with another proposed increase in 2015. Sales tax has proven to be an unstable revenue source: the dot-com crash in 2001 reduced sales tax revenue and forced Metro to scale back plans to increase service, and in 2009 Metro lost more than 15% of its sales tax base due to the recession.
"A functioning transportation system is critical to the working people who make Seattle and the wider region run. The ongoing cuts to Metro disproportionately affect low-wage workers, the elderly, the disabled, and people of color," said Sawant. "As a regular bus rider, I stand with all the commuters in King County who are opposed to the looming cuts to these services. I am also in solidarity with Metro workers who are threatened with layoffs and a proposed wage freeze. Seattle’s poor and working people not only need the service to be maintained, they need a world-class mass transit system for this city to remain livable for them," Sawant added.
"I support the most equitable and least burdensome revenue source(s) on lower income users when considering the critical funding for our Metro bus system," said Rev. Paul Benz, Faith Action Network.
"Working people should refuse to accept that increasingly regressive taxation is the best we can do," said Philip Locker, Social Alternative. "The only reason that no progressive funding options currently exist is because there is a lack of political will at the state, county and city level. Local elected officials have an obligation to fight to stop regressive taxation and to implement policies such as taxing big business and the super-wealthy, ending direct and indirect subsidies to large real estate developers, capping excessive government executive salaries, and ending corporate handouts to generate the revenue necessary to fully fund and expand mass transit."
"With the findings recently published in the Third National Climate Assessment, it is clear that the US is already experiencing serious effects of climate change. The City of Seattle has the responsibility to act decisively to reduce our carbon impact on the environment," said Jess Spear, 15 Now. "Maintaining and expanding public transportation has proven to be an effective strategy for reducing emissions and combating climate change."
"We must organize and build our forces until we can wage an effective fight for new public transit funding and progressive taxation in Olympia," said Katie Wilson, Transit Riders Union. "Until then we will continue to be driven by the logic of artificial scarcity, cornered into the false choices of austerity: Service cuts or regressive taxes?"
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Councilmember Licata Statement on Seattle Police Chief Announcement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 5/19/2014
Councilmember Nick Licata
Councilmember Licata Statement on Seattle Police Chief Announcement
SEATTLE - Councilmember Nick Licata issued the following statement this morning in response to the Mayor's announcement regarding Seattle's Police Chief:
"I thank Mayor Murray for conducting a thorough search for our new police chief. I hope the Council can confirm Kathleen O'Toole as expediently as possible. I strongly support the Mayor selecting who he thinks will best serve the city. The Council's role is to hold the Mayor responsible for that decision and the new chief's performance."