Meta retreats in Washington as socialist Democrat brandishes new corporate tax hikes

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has narrowly avoided a costly disaster.

When Meta bought the rights to more land in Bellevue, Washington, in 2020, it brought the company's potential footprint in the area up to more than 3 million square feet. After five years of expansions, subleases, and plan changes, Zuckerberg's company had to decide if it wanted to dive fully into the expansion it was offered or stay with what it had.

'The way for Washingtonians to fight back is to build a bolder Washington.'

Newly released details about Meta's plans in Bellevue’s Spring District now confirm that the tech company has avoided disaster by about a month. As reported by Downtown Bellevue, Meta is returning the rights for several blocks in the district to developer Wright Runstad & Co., which is considered turning the land into apartment buildings, instead of offices.

With Meta using only around 700,000 square feet of its current land leases, the relinquishment comes on the cusp of massive new corporate taxes that seem to be on the horizon from a state Democrat, who is openly socialist.

State Rep. Shaun Scott (D) hopes to counteract tax cuts by the Trump administration by issuing a new corporate payroll tax that will affect the largest companies in the state, including Amazon, Microsoft, and, of course, Meta.

Scott is a Democratic Socialist, according to a report by Axios, and is certainly living up to the "socialist" part of his title with the new 5% tax.

His proposal would tax private companies where employees earn more than $125,000 per year, with the new tax applying to salaries above that threshold. Any company with more than 50 employees, a payroll in excess of $7 million, and gross receipts over $5 million will also be taxed.

The tax would raise $5.5 billion over two years, according to Komo News.

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Photographer: Allison Robbert/Bloomberg via Getty Images

The tax reportedly comes in direct response to money lost from the Republicans' H.R.1, aka the Big Beautiful Bill Act, which claimed from the outset that it would "reduces taxes."

Scott is, in effect, proving the bill to be true with his proposal.

"The way for Washingtonians to fight back is to build a bolder Washington: a Washington that defends the programs that people depend on, while the other Washington defunds them," he said, according to the Olympian.

The bill would take effect on July 1, 2026.

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