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The Overcast: Seattle Wants An Income Tax But It's Complicated

Simone Alicea
/
KNKX
Residents speak at a recent public hearing about Seattle's income tax proposal set to head to a City Council vote in July.

The Seattle City Council plans on passing a local income tax in the next couple weeks. But there are a lot of questions about a potential city income tax in a state that doesn't have one.

The most pressing question might be whether the tax would be legal. Even if it isn't, does that even matter?

Seattle Times political reporter Jim Brunner and City Hall reporter Dan Beekman dive into the issue on the latest episode of The Overcast, their weekly politics podcast recorded at KNKX.

They spoke with John Burbank, executive director of the Economic Opportunity Institute and income tax advocate; and with income tax opponent Jason Mercier with the Washington Policy Center.

Below you can hear an excerpt of their conversation dealing specifically with the legal questions surrounding the income tax.

To hear more about the specifics of Seattle's proposal and what it could mean for the rest of the state, check out the whole podcast. You can find The Overcast on iTunes, Tunein, Sticher and SoundCloud.

A Seattle native and former KNKX intern, Simone Alicea spent four years as a producer and reporter at KNKX. She earned her Bachelor's of Journalism from Northwestern University and covered breaking news for the Chicago Sun-Times. During her undergraduate career, she spent time in Cape Town, South Africa, covering metro news for the Cape Times.