{"id":47675,"date":"2026-06-15T23:29:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T23:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bondahx.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/five-years-in-new-analysis-ties-seattles-jumpstart-tax-to-downtown-decline-geekwire\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T23:29:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T23:29:43","slug":"five-years-in-new-analysis-ties-seattles-jumpstart-tax-to-downtown-decline-geekwire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bondahx.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/15\/five-years-in-new-analysis-ties-seattles-jumpstart-tax-to-downtown-decline-geekwire\/","title":{"rendered":"Five years in, new analysis ties Seattle’s ‘JumpStart’ tax to downtown decline \u2013 GeekWire"},"content":{"rendered":"


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by Todd Bishop<\/a><\/strong><\/span> on

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Amazon\u2019s headquarters and neighboring towers in downtown Seattle. (GeekWire Photo \/ Kurt Schlosser)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A new Downtown Seattle Association<\/a> report asserts that Seattle\u2019s signature tax on big employers is backfiring, five years after it went into effect, holding up nearby Bellevue as an example of the jobs and prosperity the city has missed out on in the process.<\/p>\n

The report, released Monday afternoon<\/a>, finds that downtown Seattle has lost about 30,000 jobs since 2020 and that the taxable value of its office buildings has fallen 48% \u2014 even as Bellevue, which has no comparable tax, added jobs and saw commercial values rise 7%.\u00a0<\/p>\n

JumpStart, passed in 2020 and in effect since 2021, taxes the payrolls of Seattle\u2019s largest employers, including Amazon and other big tech companies. It\u2019s projected to raise about $388 million this year<\/a>, down from earlier forecasts, due in part to the loss of high-paying jobs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is, to a large extent, a tax on big tech. About 70% of JumpStart revenue comes from just 10 companies, most in the technology sector, according to the city\u2019s budget office<\/a>. That\u2019s a reflection of how heavily Seattle\u2019s economy leans on a handful of large tech employers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese were a set of taxes that may have provided some short-term gain to the city coffers, but are inflicting long-term pain,\u201d DSA President and CEO Jon Scholes<\/a> said in an interview. \u201cWe predicted that at the time, and were sort of dismissed and ignored.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Supporters see a very different picture. Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson \u2014 who helped design JumpStart prior to her election \u2014 told GeekWire<\/a> previously that it was \u201ca very successful policy,\u201d raising hundreds of millions of dollars a year from a small group of highly profitable companies.<\/p>\n

GeekWire contacted the mayor\u2019s office for comment on the DSA report.<\/p>\n

Amazon had started to expand in Bellevue prior to the JumpStart tax, following the city\u2019s short-lived 2018 \u201chead tax,\u201d a JumpStart precursor that the council at the time passed and quickly repealed. The company has since built its Bellevue workforce to about 15,000 people, part of what it now calls its broader Puget Sound regional headquarters.\u00a0<\/p>\n