What could they possible expect? Surely, they did not believe companies would just pay the taxes, right?
Seattle payroll tax revenues fall short by $47M
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell released his payroll expense tax (PET) report for 2024 Tuesday, and its projections came up nearly $50 million short.
“Today’s announcement that PET revenues collected in 2024 were $47 million lower than projected requires action to ensure our budget remains balanced,” Harrell explained in a statement.
Harrell said that his 2025 budget proposal was based on the projections from the independent Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts. But since they got it wrong, the mayor said for the 2026 budget, “my office will consider all options, including additional revenue sources and appropriate expense reductions, to ensure we are making the priority investments and funding the essential services that matter to our residents.”
Did the payroll expense tax push jobs out of Seattle?
The payroll tax is levied on large corporations in the city, like Amazon and Expedia. Such a steep revenue forecast error suggests high-paying companies or their jobs are leaving the city.
It’s precisely why KTTH host Jason Rantz called the news “catastrophic” in a thread on X.
“What people haven’t realized yet—but soon will—is that the sharp drop in payroll expense tax revenue means jobs are leaving Seattle,” Rantz explained. “The whole point of the PET was to squeeze ‘free’ money out of businesses because the city arrogantly assumed it held all the cards. But what did PET actually do? It pushed Amazon jobs to Bellevue, kept employees working from home (and out of Seattle), and helped fuel layoffs at companies hit hardest by the tax—like Expedia.”
Jobs are leaving Seattle
Even Harrell acknowledged, “This decrease in revenue is aligned with recent reports of major employers moving thousands of high-paying jobs out of Seattle to other cities in our region.”
And, of course, next they will try to push jobs completely out of the state:
He noted that the Seattle payroll tax idea may go statewide with the budget proposal from Washington Democrats.
What’s next?
Republican State Rep. Chris Corry of Yakima took notice of the payroll woes in Seattle. He posted, “Paging literally everyone in Olympia.”
I just can’t believe they would deliberately kill their geese laying the golden eggs. Hence, I have to believe they really are that stupid. And since they are incapable of learning they are going to double down on their mistake.
Don’t worry. Washing State has a plan to steal more from the people.
The socialists will poke and push and steal until they have their Nicolae Ceaușescu moment and have a change of heart (ahem). Some really are that stupid, but mainly they are evil and can’t help themselves.
As you long for your Idaho bunker, I can’t wait to get out of this [clean speech violation] state. Love the climate and geography, but the politics… blech.
I wonder if Eastern WA is in a similar mindset as Eastern OR? Leave the blue state for greener pastures in red states.
I like the idea, but I just cannot see the Federal Government ever allowing this.
Yes, Eastern Washington does not like the politics of the Seattle area.
That’s an understatement. I love Eastern Washington, I’ve lived here my whole life, all my family is here. But I’m trying to figure out how to get to Idaho to escape the leftist mob rule. I wish we could just slide the Idaho border over to the Cascades.
I think these types of problems were exacerbated by the “one man one vote” cases like Renyolds v. Sims. It would be a good check if there were one senator per county in the state legialatures.
Does it look like Boise is going to be a similar problem for Idaho any time soon?
Of course they are. Mountains have always been better barriers and boundaries than rivers. It’s only because there are better roads and the hated internal combustion engine that government can easily project their power across high mountains. There’s a reason the Brenner Pass is still a barrier and boundary.
Hey!
I drove over that pass last year. Very pretty scenery.
Indeed. I last drove over it in 1991 to go from relatives in Salzburg land to other relatives in Rome. Unfortunately, the next day, in Rome, I developed a fever and had to stay home from the tour of the Vatican (the Sistine Chapel), the Colosseum and the Trevi fountain. I tell you though, watching The Pirates of Penzance with a 38 fever is a bizarre experience. The songs were in English while all the dialogue was dubbed into Italian. I spent the entire time all glassy-eyed, trying to twist the Italian into
German.
Did you drive south through the Dolomites?
We drove from Munich to the Dolomites. Stay several days. Then drove back north, briefly stopped in Liechtenstein, and then on to Zurich.
Up next: A “moving tax” levied on corporations that move employees to lower tax environments, followed by an “engagement tax” on those corporations that do move but still transact business in the old jurisdictions; for example, D.C. has had its heart set on a commuter tax for over half a century.
Lefties are, in many ways, a “one trick pony.” That their one favorite trick is running out of steam will be completely lost on them; “doubling down” seems to be a genetically transmitted ingrained reflex.
I’d bet there’s someone, somewhere, in that administration trying to figure out a way to tax sunlight and oxygen (all those solar panels are just a latent bounty waiting to be harvested).
The regimes the Leftists insist are really far-right instituted a leaving the regime tax, The Nazis, Franco, the Soviets, and whoever was the dictator of Portugal at that time all did this. I read of one woman who hid her money from Franco’s minions by rolling it into her hair. Unfortunately she forgot to include the money she was allowed o take out in something the border guards could examine. After some shouting back and forth she was allowed to exit with her family.
The city can get a start on balancing their budget by firing every member of the Office of Economic and Revenue Forecasts and subleasing the space. Not expecting jobs to leave the jurisdiction when taxes go up is prima-face evidence of incompetence at the most basic level.
Fire them all, then fire everyone on the interview committees who approved the hires, etc. Being stupid to that degree should hurt.
I’m curious whether the initial estimates for revenue were accurate; most of the other government income estimates I’ve seen were unreasonably high.
And of course, the other problems with Seattle sure didn’t help – crime, high costs, traffic, restrictive laws, and more.
When I visited I found it nice but … problematic. The parts I saw, which were at least average, were still dirty and need of major maintenance, plus being small and crazy expensive.