Microsoft’s Smith Sees Jobs Risk If Washington State Hikes Taxes

As job cuts spread gloom through the Seattle-area tech scene, one of Microsoft Corp.’s top executives is warning that state proposals for higher taxes risk devastating the region’s economy.

In Microsoft’s home state of Washington, progressive candidates won up and down the ballot this month by promising to address the affordability crisis in and around Seattle. The not-so-subtle villain in these campaigns was the tech industry, whose injection of wealth from high salaries and early career stock grants have priced out just about everyone else.

Part of the solution proposed by Democratic state lawmakers and Katie Wilson, a community ...