One of our state’s most prominent employers, Microsoft, recently had to call police to remove several anti-Israel protesters who had taken over the company president’s office in Redmond.
Only several days prior, nearly 20 protesters were arrested after occupying and vandalizing other property on the same campus.
If there was any doubt before that Microsoft draws a line between expressing political views and behavior that is threatening or disruptive, it should be clear now.
Common sense suggests Microsoft is also willing to draw the line in other categories — like taxes and regulations.
Unfortunately, Olympia’s majority Democrats seem determined to extract even more money from those who can take their employees or their assets to other states.
It’s as though they want to keep pushing to find where the line is, and don’t care about the consequences if they go too far.
This year, Democrats got closer than ever to imposing a so-called “wealth” tax that would crush innovation in our state. Although the bill was opposed by all Republicans, it was approved by the Senate majority on the final day of our session and has support from House Democrat leaders, so it will be back.
They also took a shot at expanding the intensely unpopular Seattle “payroll” tax, which in truth is a tax on jobs, into a statewide tax. It would hit the thousands of Amazon employees who were relocated to Bellevue to avoid the Seattle tax, as well as high-income employees of other companies — like Microsoft. Look for that bill to return also.
While the proposed taxes on innovation and jobs didn’t become law, Democrats did rush a business-and-occupation tax increase through. At $5.6 billion over four years, it’s the largest piece of the majority’s $12.2 billion tax package.
Prior to the final tax votes, the non-partisan Washington Policy Center shared its finding that our state had moved from having the nation’s sixth best business-tax climate in 2014 to the fifth worst.
That’s a huge drop in less than a decade, and the business climate will be even less friendly when the new B&O tax hike — which in Washington applies to the gross, not the net — kicks in Oct. 1.
It’s no surprise the latest employer survey by the Association of Washington Business found 58% of those responding describe their overall tax burden as a major challenge. The poll, conducted about a month ago, also had 69% of respondents ranking taxes as the most important public-policy issue facing the state.
Microsoft has even more reason to be unhappy. Democrats made sure the B&O tax increase will take an extra bite from large companies and those in the advanced-computing sector. Microsoft checks those boxes too.
It’s worth noting that while majority Democrats were starting to move their business-tax hike through, Microsoft confirmed its purchase of 300 acres of undeveloped land, close to where a similar amount of raw acreage was bought in 2023.
