Jon Scholes, president and CEO of the Downtown Seattle Association, called for fewer taxes on businesses in the city, saying in a recent speech, “We don’t need more business taxes in Seattle. We need more businesses in Seattle paying taxes.”

He told “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio that while the idea seems straightforward, lawmakers haven’t responded that way.

“We’ve got plenty of space for more businesses to be in Seattle, paying taxes. What’s been unfortunate over these last couple of years is there’s a billion dollars of new employer taxes that our city government has imposed on folks doing business in our city,” Scholes said.

Consequently, taxes are pushing out employers, hurting job growth, and leading to a higher vacancy rate.

“[Taxes have] contributed to jobs leaving our city and job growth on the other side of the lake, and that’s contributing to a significant office vacancy rate, collapsing commercial office values in downtown Seattle, which is then shifting the property tax burden to residents and to small businesses through their leases,” Scholes explained. “So this is something we have to reckon with as a city.”

Scholes argued Seattle’s tax structure has put the city at a competitive disadvantage compared to neighboring cities like Bellevue.

“We’ve made ourselves an outlier when it comes to where you may want to locate jobs as an employer in this region, given the different tax structures,” Scholes said. “These are taxes you’re not paying in Bellevue and other parts of the region, and it’s having an effect on where those jobs are located. So I think the attitude of city government over the years is ‘We need a lot of business taxes to raise a bunch of money and make more investments, etc,’ but it’s driving businesses out. We need more businesses paying those taxes. That’s how we strengthen and grow the job space.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to “The Jake and Spike Show” weekdays from noon to 3 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

Seattle’s annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade brought a sea of green and joyful noise to the Emerald City on Saturday. It also included a new view, marching down Seattle’s revitalized waterfront, instead of the usual route through downtown Seattle. Bagpipes, drummers, dance teams and community groups from across Puget Sound participated in the colorful parade. The Irish Heritage Club is celebrating 40 years of Seattle being a sister city with Galway, Ireland. There was a mixed pot of weather for the parade, but we can all agree that “May the wind always be at your back.” (Image: Elizabeth Crook / Seattle Refined) March 14, 2026

As a developer looks to turn the Liggett Building, an empty historic office building in downtown Seattle, into apartments, KIRO host Gee Scott asks why not?

“It makes way too much sense to take some of these vacant, empty spots and turn them into an opportunity for people to live, and by the way, it shouldn’t be hard for Seattle, because right now Seattle got a Bellevue problem,” Gee said on “The Gee and Ursula Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “Everybody is closing up shop, moving, and a lot of times they move over to Bellevue. So why not? Why not have a situation where some of these empty spots can be used for living? Let’s do that.”

He believes one of Washington’s biggest issues is with inventory, dating back to the Great Recession.

“Probably the biggest problem that we do have here in the state of Washington is inventory,” Gee said. “We’ve had an inventory problem since the Great Recession, back in 2008. The state of Washington and other places have not been on pace to develop more inventory here.”

He pointed to the slew of red tape that blocks developers from getting permits. According to The Seattle Times, developers have submitted at least seven proposals, since 2020, to turn office space into residential living, but many of those fell through.

The Seattle Times noted large conversion projects are difficult because developers have to work with spaces that were never designed for housing.

But Jen Pasquier, the founder of Current Development, is hopeful she can bring the once bustling Liggett Building back to life. Pasquier and the architecture firm Graham Baba Architects have submitted preliminary proposals to the city to transform the building into 93 apartment units.

“I think this is an opportunity where you can do really cool, creative, unique things with these legendary buildings,” KIRO fill-in producer Paul Holden said. “Why not make these interesting communities, where you can have communal spaces on the bottom, the living at the top, kind of turn these office buildings not only into apartments, but centers for the people who live there.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to Gee and Ursula on “The Gee and Ursula Show” weekday mornings from 9 am to 12 pm on KIRO Newsradio.