Quote of the Day
Before her role as mayor, Wilson was an activist who pushed for the payroll tax, also known as the “JumpStart” tax. The Seattle City Council passed the measure in 2020, targeting large companies with employees making high salaries. In recent years, Seattle has relied heavily on the new revenue to balance its budget.
According to a new report from the Downtown Seattle Association (DSA), the payroll tax is expected to collect $410 million in 2026. However, the DSA also blames the payroll tax for job loss, comparing tax conditions in Seattle and nearby Bellevue showing a stark tale of two cities.
The DSA report states that since the JumpStart payroll tax was implemented, downtown Seattle has lost around 30,000 jobs.
Between 2023 and 2025, Seattle shed 1.3% of its jobs, while Bellevue gained 12.6%.
The report also notes a divergence in real estate values: between 2020 and 2025, Seattle’s office properties declined 48% in value, while those in Bellevue rose 7%.
City officials say some of the core reasons why Seattle is in a budget deficit include inflation and tax revenue from other sources—specifically property and sales taxes—not coming in as projected.
Hana Kim
June 22, 2026
New taxes on the table as Seattle faces budget deficit | FOX 13 Seattle
I’m glad Barb and I live in Bellevue rather than Seattle. You can see the difference just driving through. The boarded-up shops are not the only clue. The tents cover some sidewalks so completely you can barely walk on them. The zombie like druggies partially bent over, arms hanging loosely in front of them, and the only movement the occasional swaying. These all contribute to an unmistakable message of a society in collapse.
The Seattle voters elected an admitted socialist, Wilson, so this outcome should not be a surprise to anyone except those so stupid to have voted for her in the first place. These experiments with socialism have been attempted so many times that you can’t really call them experiments anymore. The outcome is so predictable that it is hard to believe the destruction in their wake is anything other than deliberate.
Socialism is societal cancer.
Start up the rotors!
I cannot fathom how a rational mind can wrap their head around Socialism. But, rational mind is the key to understanding the concept I guess.
Ultimately, I think people don’t want to have to make their own decisions and will accept the yolk as long as they don’t have to accept responsibility?
I know, tax them harder! Ahem, I have question. What did they think would happen?
This calls for a course of electroshock therapy and intensive drilling on dynamic analysis.
Caveat: the following is a generalization, NAxALT, yadda yadda.
The Left lives in a funhouse inversion of reality, a “laws of man” mentality almost entirely divorced from the natural world and natural law and normal “actions have consequences, side-effects, and reactions” that more conservative/traditional thinkers would find obvious. They think “because I say it should work that way” is a legit argument. They don’t need farms because they get their food from the supermarket. They don’t need coal, oil, hydro, or mines because they drive an electric car. Etc. They appear to be simultaneously projecting their worst, most base fears and thinking-patterns onto others, yet are unable to actually use real empathy to understand where others are coming from and think through rational responses and counter-moves to their actions.
I think the leadership actually calling the shots does know they are wreaking destruction, and they are OK with that. They are either straight up evil and seek destruction for its own sake, or they are completely lacking in empathy and it’s simply a means to some unspecified (to us) end, i.e. Cloward-Piven, Kalergi plan, Satanist or globalist take-over, Commie puppets, or whatever. I think many of the nominal “official” leaders (elected, appointed, hired) are true believers and useful idiots. (I would put mayor Wilson in that later category.)
Rolf:
You posted, “They are either straight up evil and seek destruction for its own sake, or they are completely lacking in empathy and it’s simply a means to some unspecified (to us) end…”
The easiest way to understand the collectivists of any stripe (Communist, Socialist, Fascist, whatever) is that ALL of their actions, 100%, are aimed at gaining power and control over other people. That’s it. That’s their “unspecified” end, and the leadership gets quite upset when this is pointed out as being obvious. They don’t pretend to “care” about the poor, minorities, trannies, or any other cause-de-jour; they want raw power and control. Collectivism gives them access to that kind of power when it’s actually implemented.
Of course when that happens their useful idiots go to the wall since they might also aspire to the power and control that the leadership will never, ever give away once gained.
Trying to save any big city is pointless. Just get out.
Is Bellevue sufficiently firewalled against Seatle to prevent metastasis?
Physically, no. There are some financial barriers. The price of housing is high due to large houses, yards, streets, and, hence, high property taxes. Demographically, there are a lot of Chinese and some Japanese. They are not fans of communism. The voting is strongly Democrat for social issues, but they tend toward free market economics. Lots of Amazon, China (probably borderline illegal), Google, and Microsoft money.
Few years ago son & DiL were selling their house not far from Seattle- different county- and wound up with a bidding war thanks to people who wanted out of the Seattle-Tacoma area. Made the kids a fair bit of change more than expected for the sale.