No, that’s not a typo in the headline. I’m referring to the infamous
Seattle’s Democratic Socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, seems to be learning the hard way that running a city isn’t the same as mouthing-off about the rich in a dorm room or the faculty lounge.
Last month she garnered a lot of attention for her smug dismissal of millionaires who might be thinking about leaving the city because of a new millionaire’s tax.
In the wake of Washington state’s approval of a new income tax on millionaires, Seattle mayor Katie Wilson, a democratic socialist, brushes aside concerns about wealthy residents fleeing the state.
“The ones that leave—like, ‘bye!’” pic.twitter.com/vmfWcXQfvD
— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) April 30, 2026
But even before that, in November of last year, she made news for joining a Starbuck’s picket line and calling for a boycott of the company.
Seattle Mayor Kommissar Katie Wilson…
…Earlier this year: “I’m proud to say loud and clear that I am not buying Starbucks and you should not either!”@Starbucks: Bye! ✌️ pic.twitter.com/QJG3rbiXpU
— PNW Conservative (@PNWConservative) April 23, 2026
She really seemed to be enjoying herself there. But last month, Starbucks announced a decision that she did not enjoy. They decided to open a new corporate office in Nashville.
Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks is investing $100 million to establish a new support office in Nashville, Tennessee, as part of a long-term growth strategy that includes creating 2,000 regional jobs over the next five years.
Why Nashville? They company claimed it was part of their brand strategy that had nothing to do with politics, but a local news outlet pointed out it could save the company a lot in taxes.
The move could save the company millions in taxes. Tennessee does not have a payroll tax for high earners and utilizes an excise tax based on profits. In contrast, Washington’s Business and Occupation (B&O) tax is levied on gross revenue regardless of whether a company is profitable.
“Companies across the nation recognize that Tennessee’s strong values and fiscally-conservative approach are good for business,” Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said in a statement. “We are proud to welcome another Fortune 500 company like Starbucks to our state.”
Are taxes politics? Clearly the answer is yes in Seattle. To be clear, Starbucks didn’t move it’s main HQ out of Seattle, but this week the company did announce layoffs of people who report to that office.
Seattle is tied to 252 layoffs after Starbucks announced last week it would trim several hundred corporate positions as part of a larger restructuring process…
The positions are tied to Starbucks’ support center in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood and involve corporate roles not affiliated with any union or labor organization. Starbucks clarified the figure includes remote employees from across the country who report to managers in Seattle and are therefore administratively tied to the headquarters.
Starbucks closed one of its flagship Reserve Roasteries at the corporate offices in October.
Again, they aren’t saying they are leaving but clearly the current plan is to grow and expand in Nashville and sort of slim things down in Seattle.
Someone who isn’t a socialist agitator must have pulled Mayor Wilson aside and pointed all of this out to her. A few days ago she offered a kind of apology in an interview with the NY Times.
Before running for mayor, she ran a small nonprofit that advocated for public transit riders, and business interests spent almost $2 million trying to defeat her.
Now she is learning on the job at a time when Seattle’s political mood and the broader economy may be misaligned, with job cuts and slower growth harming labor markets. Last fall, she capped her election win by visiting a barista union rally to declare: “I am not buying Starbucks, and you should not either.” Today, she says that was a mistake and a rough spot on the learning curve between liberal activist and elected leader.
“Those comments were not productive in the sense that they caused more harm than good,” she said in an interview.
You think so, Katie? Wow, I guess even democratic socialists can learn something once in a while.
The mayor said she understands now that everything she says will be parsed for potential anti-business sound-bites and that she should have “a multidimensional relationship” with companies like Starbucks.
Parsed? When you call for a boycott of a major company in the city, that doesn’t require a lot of deep parsing. It’s directly and plainly anti-business. So, put aside reading the tea leaves for your Chai latte. How about you just stop directly attacking local employers?
Ms. Wilson said her office has a good relationship with Starbucks, noting that the Nashville expansion news did not come as a surprise and that the company continues philanthropic work in the city. Earlier this month, she announced creation of a new, 90-unit tiny house homeless shelter in the South Park neighborhood. One of the sponsors: Starbucks.
“I want them here,” she said, “and I believe they want to be here”
She would not, however, say where she buys her lattes.
Of course she couldn’t just go to Starbucks and be seen ordering a coffee. She’s still a smug socialist moron at base.
Sponsoring some local project, which I’m sure Starbucks has done before, isn’t a big win. It just means the company does not want to burn any bridges. But the fact remains that the new office is in Nashville, not Seattle. Saving money is something companies will do, especially when it’s clear they are not appreciated.
There is of course another way to view Seattle’s desperate need for more money from big businesses and the well off. It’s not a tax problem, it’s a spending problem.
Former Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire recently warned at a forum sponsored by the Association of Washington Business that the state may have a “spending problem,” noting the state budget has grown from $33 billion when she left office to roughly $80 billion today.
“I would suggest to you, we don’t really have an income problem, we have a spending problem,” Gregoire said…
“Seattle is, in some ways, at a bit of a tipping point, and we should take nothing for granted,” said Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association…
“Seattle is an outlier when it comes to the cost of doing business,” he said…
“The state budget is bigger than it’s ever been, and the city budget is bigger than it’s ever been,” he said. “I don’t know if voters and businesses are getting the returns that we all deserve.”
In sum, Seattle’s budget is too big and Mayor Wilson has been treating the companies and people that pay all those taxes like they are not wanted and not needed exactly when they are most needed. Maybe this week she’s finally decided to pull her head out of her DSA backside but I’m not too optimistic. It took her months to fix this one mistake. She’ll probably keep mouthing off and watching as the millionaires and big businesses wave, like, bye.
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