As much as a ‘we told you so’ would be appropriate, Seattle and King County are now suffering the results the anti-business, defund police and lack of community investment policies that have been adopted over the last few years.

A recent study done by Quinn Thomas, a public relations firm, highlighted by the Puget Sound Business Journal, shows that the majority of King County residents are likely to move out of the area within the next 5 years, seeking a more suburban or rural lifestyle. The largest portion of the respondents, 36%, are planning to leave the Seattle region completely.

Back in February of this year, the Washington Policy Center reported on the annual U-Haul one way trips report which indicated Washington had slipped to 36 out of 50 of preferred destinations for movers. A clear indication that Washington is losing its popularity and an early warning for the region’s desirability.

The exodus is primarily driven by polices enacted by the Seattle City Council which have a large effect on the region.

Some of the anti-business policies that are encouraging people to leave the Seattle region, include,

• The $15 minimum wage, where the negative effects were demonstrated no more clearly than in Seattle. The rash of restaurant closures and lost jobs can be attributed, in many cases, directly to the additional fiscal cost the minimum wage increases have caused.
• Hazzard pay for the pandemic which Seattle residents saw store closures and jobs eliminated when the Seattle City Council voted to add an additional $4 per hour during a state of emergency. The City of Bellingham had a similar initiative rejected recently, avoiding the Seattle mistake, when the voters voted against a labor funded initiative to add a $4 hazard pay to Bellingham workers.
• Vaccine passports which have had a dramatic and negative financial effect on the service and hospitality industry in King County.
• Lack of leadership from the Seattle City Council dealing with and in some cases, encouraging homelessness in Seattle.
• Payroll taxes that target successful businesses that are encouraging good paying jobs to leave the area.

The recently passed statewide income tax on capital gains, currently under a court challenge for its constitutionally, will add to the problems as historically, states that impose income taxes ultimately end up with those who have the financial means, leaving the state.

Respondents to the Quinn Thomas survey, cite lack of government response to homelessness and crime rates (along with housing affordability) as the top three reasons they are planning on leaving. All three factors are a direct result of the policies adopted by Seattle and King County.

After a decade of growth, King County is now seeing that trend reverse.

The good news is, all of this can be fixed with a change in policy and an un-doing of the regressive taxes and polices that are currently in place. Washington is a beautiful place to live, our government should be working to make it affordable and attractive to business to want to be here.

The policies that are negatively impacting the region need to be repealed before it’s too late.