Economy - Lorena González

  • Will create thousands of stable, high-quality jobs by retrofitting homes, restoring the Duwamish River and the Salish Sea ecosystems, and building green infrastructure.
  • Work with a partner to help them set up a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) to offer patient, low-cost capital to community-serving enterprises.
  • Establish incentives and provide technical assistance for worker co-ops, worker-owned collectives, profit sharing, and employee ownership.
  • Expand the use of Community Workforce Agreements and Community Benefit Agreements, creating high quality jobs, increasing local community hiring, and ensuring that large development projects are responsible to community needs and impacts.
  • Establish a citywide ‘access to hours’ policy so that current hourly employees who want to work up to 40 hours can get them before adding new part-time employees.
  • Ensure workers in the caring economy know their rights and have protections & benefits.
  • Raise standards in the gig economy by ending sub-minimum wages and improving access to benefits.
  • Create a clear action agenda for local ownership of small businesses, community ownership of assets, and targeted solutions for neighborhood economic resilience.
  • Serve local businesses with tools they need to find capital and technical assistance, with attention to removing barriers for new entrepreneurs from low-income communities.
  • Ensure immigrant businesses have in-language, culturally competent guidance.
  • Help protect local ownership and family businesses transitioning to the next generation, whether in fragile neighborhoods like CID or unique industries like fishing and maritime.
  • Partner with the Greater Seattle Business Association and other groups representing LGBTQ+ business owners to promote LGBTQ+ small businesses in Capitol Hill and other parts of the city that are struggling to stay afloat from lost revenue due to COVID-19.
  • Work with the State toward a balanced tax code, where corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share through a wealth tax, estate taxes, and a progressive income tax.
  • Require foundations and Donor Advised Funds to grant an annual minimum amount.
  • Work with Council to explore progressive local revenue options as well as B&O tax reform to reduce the burden on smaller and low-margin businesses.