Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson shrugged off concerns that wealthy residents are leaving over higher taxes, calling those warnings “super overblown” and telling departing millionaires “Bye,” while critics point to migration and tax data that suggest a different reality for the city.
Katie Wilson, labeled a socialist by opponents, drew sharp criticism after dismissing reports that high earners were fleeing Seattle because of tax policies. Her offhand response at a public event quickly became the focal point for debate about the city’s fiscal direction and who pays for local government priorities.
At Seattle University she said, “the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are like super overblown.” For the millionaires who are leaving, she had one word: “Bye.” Those quotes landed hard with business leaders and taxpayers who say the city needs nuance, not bravado.
Wilson defended a city-level “millionaire tax” and promised to pursue what she called more “progressive” revenue measures aimed at the wealthy. She framed the effort as correcting an unfair system and argued the city can use its authority differently than the county to shift the burden toward high earners.
She also insisted, “overall, we still have a deeply regressive tax system, and my office is actively exploring our options regarding progressive taxation.” The mayor made a point of saying Seattle has “greater flexibility” than the county when it comes to collecting revenue, and warned it is “detrimental for Seattle’s business climate when the costs of operating in downtown Seattle are significantly misaligned with those in neighboring Bellevue.”
Critics responded by pointing to newly released migration figures showing Washington recorded a net loss of income from migration for a second consecutive year, a trend they say undercuts Wilson’s dismissal of outflows. Similar patterns have been observed in other heavily taxed, blue states such as New York and California, where lawmakers face the same tough choices about who pays and who leaves.
The contrast between political rhetoric and hard numbers fuels the GOP critique: talk of progressive fixes rings hollow if the tax base keeps draining out the back door. When taxpayers and entrepreneurs move to lower-tax states, city budgets feel the sting, and the services those new taxes were supposed to fund get harder to deliver without raising rates further or cutting spending.
Those economic realities matter because the tax picture in Seattle is already steep. Local reporting notes Seattle now holds the highest combined state and local sales tax rate among major U.S. cities, a fact critics use to show the city is competing on cost and losing. Separate data show the median amount paid in property tax rose dramatically, with an 89% increase from 2010 to 2021, a jump many homeowners still feel in their annual bills.
For business owners and employees who commute into downtown, higher operating costs translate into fewer jobs and weaker commercial corridors, which worsens the very problems progressive policies aim to fix. If downtown becomes more expensive than nearby suburbs, companies will rethink where they locate, and workers will reconsider where they live.
Calling movers “Bye” might play well with a base that wants redistribution, but it does little to address the fiscal logic driving exits. Lawmakers who push higher taxes without accounting for migration risk shrinking the revenue base they depend on, turning short-term gains into long-term structural problems.
The real test for Seattle’s leadership will be whether officials can reconcile progressive goals with competitive economics, or whether repeated tax hikes accelerate an exodus that hollowed other big cities. The choices made now will shape not just tax bills but the future of downtown businesses, housing markets, and municipal services for years to come.
