Having a conversation with an old friend in Seattle last night. He is taking his business and moving to TX. It;s not a huge company and he only employs 90 people but I certainly understand his motivation. He believes that so much income generation is moving out of state that within 18 months, they will have to really start to get aggressive on new taxes. Taxes that no one has even heard of before and he does not want to be around for any of that. He is well connected in the city and the ripple effect is already being felt by the socialist leadership even though they are trying to put up a front that it is no big deal.
Interestingly enough, almost 80% of his current employees are happily making the move with the company to Dallas so it isn't just the wealthy looking to get out.
One more interesting side note, he reached out to the TX Dev Authority only 3 months ago. They put a proposal in front of him for everything he needed location wise, plus they gave him incentives. He signed up and in 5 months from beginning to end he is out of Seattle. Said he couldn't believe how welcoming and aggressive they were to get his business. It is completely the opposite of the City of Seattle. Wishes he had done this several years ago.