When Seattle holds its deserved Super Bowl victory parade on Wednesday, it will be in a downtown that is a shadow of its former prosperity.

More than 35% of office and retail space downtown sits vacant, with even some prime waterfront properties sitting empty.

The metro area’s jobless rate was 5.1% last November, up from 4% a year before. The region lost 12,900 jobs last year, the first annual decline since the recession of 2009.

It also has the highest inflation rate of any major metro region in the country with consumer prices soaring 29% from 2021 through 2025.

Housing prices are double the national average in Seattle, with the median price of a single-family home now at $907,000 in December. In each of the last three years, the number of homes on the market over $5 million in value has grown with an exodus of high-income residents.

The explanation is clear: Seattle now punishes job creation with a payroll tax on firms with payrolls over $8 million and a minimum wage of $21.30 an hour. In 2022, the state enacted a 7% capital gains tax and Washington’s Democrat governor Bob Ferguson has just proposed a 9.9% income tax on millionaires that make it harder for the Seahawks to recruit the best players.

If the Ferguson tax is passed by the legislature, let’s hope it’s challenged in a referendum.  Since 1932, voters have rejected the imposition of an income tax 11 straight times.