Seattle’s political class may want to pour another cup of coffee before reading this one.
The same week Washington Democrats pushed through a new millionaire tax, Starbucks founder Howard Schultz announced that he and his family are leaving Seattle after more than four decades and relocating to Florida.
The timing immediately caught attention online.
DEVELOPING: Starbucks founder Howard Schultz announces that his family is leaving Seattle for Florida the same day Democrats passed an income tax on Washington state
— Ari Hoffman (@thehoffather) March 11, 2026
Starbucks corporate is moving to Nashville
The wealth exodus is underway. Democrats have killed WA's economy pic.twitter.com/4O8Dk0tPaI
The reaction came after Schultz posted a lengthy public message reflecting on his decades in Seattle and the company he helped build there.
“For those of you who know us well, we have entered the ‘retirement’ phase of our lives.”
Schultz described the move as part of a new chapter for him and his wife, Sheri, after decades spent building Starbucks and raising their family in Seattle.
“We have moved to Miami for our next adventure together. We are enjoying the sunshine of South Florida and its allure to our kids on the East Coast as they raise families of their own.”
The message itself reads like a farewell tour through Schultz’s history with the city. He recalled arriving in Seattle in the early 1980s to work for what was then a small coffee company and watching it grow into a global brand.
“The history of the company is bound up in the very foundation, walls and floorboards of our first store in the city’s historic market.”
Schultz also emphasized the deep roots Starbucks still has in the city, writing about the employees and entrepreneurs across the Pacific Northwest who helped build the company into what it is today.
But the announcement also comes as left-wing Washington is entering a tax environment that destroys incentives for high earners and steadily erodes incentives for the middle class as well.
Democrat lawmakers recently approved a new 9.9 percent tax on income above $1 million, a rate analysts say would place Washington among the highest-tax states in the country. When combined with the federal top income tax rate of 37 percent, the total burden on income above $1 million could exceed 46 percent.
Economists have warned for years that when tax burdens reach that level, mobility often becomes the deciding factor.
“If wealthy individuals and corporations suddenly face a large tax bill, a natural question arises as to whether they will stay and pay the bill or leave and not pay the bill.”
Washington has already seen that dynamic before. During earlier debates about wealth taxes in the state, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos moved from Seattle to Florida, taking one of the country’s largest tax bases with him.
Now, Schultz is making a similar move.
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At the same time, the Starbucks founder is relocating to Florida, and the company is expanding operations in a state with a dramatically different tax and regulatory environment.
Starbucks recently announced plans to establish a regional corporate office in the Nashville area as part of its North American expansion strategy. The office will anchor the company’s growth across the Southeast and place another major corporate presence in Tennessee.
“With these growth plans, we see Nashville, Tennessee, as an ideal location to open an office and establish a more strategic presence in the Southeast region of the U.S.” Starbucks Chief Operating Officer Mike Grams said.
State officials also highlighted why companies continue relocating operations to Tennessee, citing the state’s pro-business regulatory climate and its lack of a state income tax.
The contrast between the two states is hard to ignore. Liberal Washington lawmakers are moving forward with one of the highest top tax rates in the country, while companies and entrepreneurs continue expanding or relocating to more economically and freedom-loving states that advertise the opposite approach.
Schultz framed his move as a personal decision tied to retirement and family. But the broader pattern unfolding across the country remains the same one critics of wealth taxes have warned about for years.
When taxes rise high enough, capital and talent have a way of finding somewhere else to go.
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