Seattle’s city council voted on Tuesday to repeal a proposed tax on businesses, in which large businesses would have been taxed [press release] $275 for every full-time employee, with the revenue going towards Seattle’s homeless population. The city council had passed the tax unanimously a few weeks ago.

However, the council voted 7-2 to repeal the tax after complaints [The Hill report] from big businesses such as Amazon.

Seattle’s mayor, Jenny Durkan [official website], who said she will sign the repeal, said [press release] “Instead of engaging in a prolonged, expensive political fight, the City and I will continue to move forward on building real partnerships that align our strategies from businesses, advocates, philanthropy.”

Councilmember Kshama Sawant, who voted for the tax to remain, said [Twitter] that the tax was repealed because “blatant lies by big [businesses] have impacted public opinion.”

Homelessness continues to be an issue in the US. In 2017 a federal judge ruled [JURIST report] that “sweeps” of Washington homeless camps can continue. A month later a UN expert said [JURIST report] that housing is a human right. Last week a UN human rights expert accused [JURIST report] the US of “criminalizing” poverty.