Washington Hikes Taxes Could Risk Jobs: States of Play

Nov. 24, 2025, 7:32 PM UTC

TAX INCREASE PROPOSALS IN WASHINGTON state risk devastating the region’s economy as job cuts are already spreading gloom through the Seattle-area tech scene, Microsoft President Brad Smith warns.

  • With promises to address the affordability crisis in and around Seattle, progressive candidates won up and down the ballot this month. Part of the solution proposed by Democratic state lawmakers and Katie Wilson, a community organizer who just won Seattle’s mayoral election, is to raise taxes on big companies and wealthy individuals.
  • If the state’s tax burden “becomes prohibitive,” then every company will reconsider where they put jobs, he said. Microsoft’s Smith ...

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