One in four Washington employers is considering leaving the state. That's triple last year's rate.

The Association of Washington Business presented the finding at its Economic Future Solutions Summit in SeaTac on Wednesday, July 23. A spring survey of more than 400 AWB member companies found 24% are weighing a move out of Washington, up from roughly 8% in the association's 2025 survey.

Three executives on the summit's "Economic Reality Check" panel put names and dollar signs to the trend.

Income tax pushing expansion to Idaho

Mike Senske, president and CEO of Pearson Packaging in Spokane, said his company chose to expand to Idaho rather than Washington because of the state's new 9.9% income tax on household income above $1 million, signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson on March 30.

"The state of Washington went from zero to 9.9% in a very short period of time," Senske said. "We see that as the beginning, not the end."

The tax also hits pass-through income, meaning business earnings that flow to individual owners on amounts exceeding $1 million.

A Ballard Avenue boutique owner or Queen Anne restaurateur clearing that threshold would owe the state 9.9 cents on every dollar above it starting in 2028.

Senske cited the estate tax as a second driver, saying he does not want "the death of a shareholder driving the liquidation of the company."

Energy costs pressuring commercial real estate

Kevin Wallace of Wallace Properties, a Bellevue-based commercial real estate firm, told the panel that the Clean Energy Transformation Act and Climate Commitment Act are driving up energy and gas costs to the point where they pressure what landlords can charge tenants and what services cost to deliver.

For Seattle businesses specifically, the squeeze is compounding. Seattle City Light implemented a 5.4% rate increase in 2026 and has projected annual increases of 7% to 10% through the end of the decade.

Puget Sound Energy, which serves parts of Magnolia and the broader region, is proposing a nearly 30% electricity rate increase and nearly 20% gas rate increase over three years starting in 2027, on top of double-digit hikes in 2025 and 2026.

Seattle City Light CEO Dawn Lindell said in July 2025 that customers should expect "significant rate increases for probably the next 10 to 12 years."

Owners leaving, selling, or shutting down

Nate Dick, vice president of TigerStop in Vancouver, Wash., said his 32-year-old manufacturing company has never faced cost increases this aggressive across the board simultaneously.

"I'm seeing business owners either move out of the state, shut down their business, or sell to multinational corporations or venture capital," Dick said at the panel. "Not only is that capital leaving the state, but that's also local leadership that is no longer in that community."

Washington lost half a billion dollars in adjusted gross income to out-migration between 2022 and 2023, according to IRS data cited at the summit. Idaho gained more than a billion dollars in new-resident wealth during the same period.

Local implications still unclear

The AWB survey did not break results down by city or neighborhood. Whether the 24% relocation figure holds for Seattle's independent retail and restaurant corridors is an open question.

A Queen Anne Square office building traded in June 2026 for roughly one-third of its 2011 sale price, the Puget Sound Business Journal reported, illustrating the commercial real estate pressure in the neighborhood.

Voters will get a say on the income tax: Initiative 645, which would repeal the 9.9% levy, qualified for the Tuesday, November 3 ballot after supporters submitted more than 500,000 signatures.