SEATTLE, WA – Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is considering new taxes on large businesses and wealthy individuals.

Wilson told a community forum on Friday night that the taxes could help fill a gap in the city’s 2027 budget, which has been estimated at up to $140 million.

“And my team is very hard at work looking for progressive revenue options, taxing the rich, taxing big business in a way that we think will be politically viable and practical,” she said.

Wilson didn’t offer any specifics during the meeting at Town Hall Seattle.

However, during her campaign for mayor last year, she said that Seattle should expand the payroll tax on higher-wage companies, called JumpStart, and implement a local capital gains tax to raise funds from the wealthiest individuals, supplementing the state capital gains tax.

“We must also explore ways to raise more revenue from the wealthiest corporations through JumpStart and other mechanisms–while carefully considering indications that some employers like Amazon may respond by shifting some high-paid positions out of the city,” Wilson said in a position paper.

Downtown Seattle Association President and CEO Jon Scholes said at the organization’s annual meeting on March 12 that Amazon has relocated thousands of employees from Seattle to Bellevue and other King County locations over the last several years due to Seattle’s increasingly aggressive tax burden.

Amazon is Seattle’s second-largest employer behind the University of Washington, with around 50,000 workers, but at least 15,000 employees now work in Bellevue. Many were were moved by Amazon after the start of the JumpStart Tax.

Scholes said that, because of Seattle’s business taxes, the city’s downtown office vacancy rate exceeds 30% today.

Wilson also spoke at the meeting, sympathizing with business concerns.

“I want you to know that I’m aware that it is not ideal for our tax environment for business to be wildly out of step with neighboring jurisdictions,” she said.

The JumpStart tax, which went into effect in 2021, charges businesses up to 2.4% on each employee who earns more than $150,000 a year.

The city also levies a Business and Occupation Tax, but this year started exempting small businesses from it while raising rates for larger companies.

A third tax, slated to be collected in 2026, requires businesses with employees who earn more than 1 million a year to pay 5% of the employees’ salaries above that threshold to fund low- and moderate-income housing.

At the Friday night meeting, Wilson said, “So I think companies can afford to pay more, but it’s not good to give them an incentive to go over to  Bellevue.”

But Wilson has not explained how she can convince companies to keep jobs in Seattle while taxing them more.

Wilson also told the several hundred people at the meeting that she was also trying to rein in city spending in light of the expected budget deficit.

Wilson said each city department is being required to pencil out reductions that could account for a 5% cut in funds and another for a 10% cut.

Wilson didn’t speak about the potential city estate tax on Friday, but Washington Governor Bob Ferguson signed legislation on March 24 reducing the state’s estate tax from 35% to 20%, with a $3 million exception.

The legislature reduced the tax because of concerns that wealthy individuals would move out of the state. The legislature hiked the tax in 2025.

Much of the community meeting on Friday focused on Wilson’s March 19 announcement that she was putting on hold an expansion of the city’s video camera surveillance program due to privacy concerns and fears that federal immigration officials might be able to access the data.

Many in the audience of several hundred, some of whom said they supported Wilson in her mayoral campaign, criticized her for not banning the camera altogether.

Wilson said she has concerns about surveillance cameras generally, but she said they have helped the Seattle police solve crimes

She said a final decision on the cameras, which began in Seattle in April 2025, won’t likely occur until a policing foundation in New York City completes an evaluation of the current program.

But Wilson said she would not budge on her stance that new cameras to be installed by Lumen Field, where the FIFA World Cup will be held, should not be turned on unless there is a “credible threat.”

Seattle City Councilman Bob Kettle has said that the cameras must be turned on before the first of six games start on June 15 to help avert a terrorist attack or other serious incident.

Kettle, a former naval intelligence officer, said it’s best to be prudent given the current geopolitical situation worldwide and the Iranian War.

Kettle said what constitutes a credible threat could have many different meanings.

Wilson said she would meet with police officials to define what constitutes a credible threat.

Kettle has called for the audit of the surveillance program to be completed before the World Cup starts, so there is a go-ahead to turn on the cameras, but Wilson said that it won’t likely happen because more time will be needed to finish the evaluation.

Wilson said it would be easy for her to say, “turn the cameras on,” but that her decision would not change.