Seattle Leaders Launch $1 Million Puget Sound Partnership as 2025 Job Losses Spur Alarm
Updated
Updated · KUOW News and Information · Sep 14
Seattle Leaders Launch $1 Million Puget Sound Partnership as 2025 Job Losses Spur Alarm
3 articles · Updated · KUOW News and Information · Sep 14
Summary
Dozens of Seattle-area officials and business leaders unveiled the Partnership for a Competitive Puget Sound, a new public-private coalition led by Challenge Seattle to counter what they called a regional economic slide.
2025 marked the Puget Sound area's first job losses in decades, organizers said, with unemployment running above the national average and business-friendliness rankings slipping.
Challenge Seattle pledged $1 million to the effort and plans another $500,000 this fall for a permitting initiative, alongside a playbook urging simpler business taxes and stronger college-to-job pipelines.
Microsoft President Brad Smith used the launch to attack Seattle's JumpStart payroll tax, saying it pushes tech jobs to Bellevue and the Eastside, while supporters say it has raised hundreds of millions for affordable housing and budget needs.
Mayor Katie Wilson, a JumpStart backer who recently signed a startup-support order, joined the event as leaders framed the partnership as an urgent attempt to keep future jobs in the region.