(The Center Square) – For years, Washington state enjoyed a level of economic prosperity that former governor and Challenge Seattle CEO Christine Gregoire says stakeholders can no longer take for granted.
“Our luck has run out,” she told attendees at the Puget Sound Regional Council’s 2026 General Assembly at the Seattle Convention Center, where she also announced a partnership with the organization to put out a regional economic development plan.
Apprehension regarding the region’s future dominated the general assembly, which included a panel featuring Microsoft CEO Brad Smith and Nordstrom CEO Erik Nordstrom.
According to a PSRC presentation, job growth in Puget Sound has stagnated for the past three years, whereas there was year over year job growth between 2015-2020. The state overall has experienced recent job loss.
“We have enormous strengths,” Gregoire said, adding that “strengths alone do not mean guaranteed success.”
With other states now emerging as competitors for the same companies, Gregoire said there are “warning signs for us that we cannot ignore. Nevertheless, she said she rejects the notion that the state is “destined to decline.”
PSRC displays featured at the general assembly noted statewide problems impacting the regional economy. In a decade, Washington went from the first in the nation for electricity affordability to seventh. The state ranks 35th among the states for permitting.
One display noted that Washington “is becoming less affordable, commute times are longer, personal taxes are increasing for employees,” and that “business taxes are growing quickly, regulations impacting business by state agencies are steeply increasing.”
With the state Legislature recently enacting the largest tax increase in Washington’s history, along with newly passed income tax, Smith said the state has positioned itself as a high tax state, but unlike states like New York or California, it hasn’t “stacked” its taxes in a way that allows it to compete.
“They (other states) have an ability to impose high taxes in a way that Seattle does not,” he said, adding that a tax on “a high amount on a small amount of people is massively unstable.”
Nordstrom noted that “it’s more expensive to do business here” compared to other parts of the country.
“Washington competes with other states, cities compete with other cities,” Nordstrom said.
He added that while the high cost of doing business due to taxes is one point of concern.
“I think we’d all like to see more attention on the return for that investment,” he added.
