Jon Bodwell did not make this decision quickly. His family built Delta Camshaft in 1977 — the year the Seattle Seahawks played their second-ever NFL season, the year the first Star Wars opened in theaters. Nearly five decades of manufacturing, of repairing camshafts that control how engines breathe, of building something in Washington state and sustaining it through recessions and recoveries and every political cycle in between.
He is leaving.
“A majority of it is the constant battle with the city over the graffiti and the crime stuff here, the constant massive tax increase, everything is increasing,” Bodwell told Fox News Digital on Tuesday. “The cost of power, the cost of insurance, everything is increasing by large increments. It’s not like one or two percent.”
He paused before continuing: “My insurance went up 20%. My power bill is going up. The claim is supposed to be going up another 13%. But just last month, it almost doubled.”
What Operating in Washington Has Become
Delta Camshaft manufactures and repairs camshafts — the engine components that regulate how a vehicle takes in air and fuel and expels exhaust. It is skilled, specialized work that has sustained the company through half a century of economic turbulence.
What it cannot sustain, Bodwell says, is the current cost environment.
The situation has become so financially untenable that Bodwell has been living inside his own business — unable to cover the cost of both operating the facility and maintaining a separate residence.
The crime situation has compounded the financial pressure in ways that are difficult to separate. Graffiti, break-ins, and the surrounding disorder have pushed insurance premiums to levels that strain a manufacturing operation’s margins.
“Because crime is running rampant, my insurance policy on the building has skyrocketed,” he said. “Quite a substantial amount in the past three to five years.”
He described conversations with local officers about the graffiti problem — and their blunt assessment of the enforcement reality.
“They’ll say it takes longer for them to write the report than it does if they arrest the person,” Bodwell said. “The criminals basically have more protective rights than I do as the building owner.”
That assessment aligns with publicly available data. Seattle was ranked fourth-worst among the 30 largest American cities for total crime in the FBI’s 2024 crime report, released in August.
The Cost of Leaving — and the Cost of Staying
Relocating Delta Camshaft is estimated to cost Bodwell upwards of $100,000. He believes he will ultimately recover that investment once the business is operating in a new location — but the fact that walking away from nearly five decades of roots is the financially preferable option says something about what Washington has become for businesses like his.
“A few years ago, I should have sold it, sold the building when people were buying and moving into downtown Tacoma,” he said. “And now there’s just a ton of buildings for sale in the market because everyone’s leaving.”
Delta Camshaft’s own website reflects the nuance of the situation. It states clearly that the company “is not closing” — only relocating — and that it plans to “continue to serve our customers for years to come.”
The business is surviving. The state is losing it anyway.
A Pattern Playing Out Across Washington
Bodwell’s situation is not unusual. It is, according to recent survey data, representative of a broader and accelerating trend.
A survey conducted by the Association of Washington Business, as reported by The Center Square, found that 44% of business leaders in the state said they are considering moving their personal residence out of Washington. Businesses responding to the survey also indicated they are now more than twice as likely to pursue their next expansion outside Washington than within it.
The political backdrop has sharpened those calculations. In March 2026, Washington state Democrats passed the “millionaires tax” — the state’s first-ever income tax on high earners — a measure pushed by progressives and signed by Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson on March 30. Opponents, including business groups and conservative lawmakers, have argued the tax accelerates the departure of both residents and employers from a state that has grown increasingly expensive and difficult to operate in.
What Bodwell Wishes He Could Do
At 56, with serious health challenges affecting his heart and lungs, Bodwell is not in a position to fight the policy battles he believes are at the root of what is happening to his state. But he named what he would have done if circumstances were different.
“If I was in my younger years, if I was in my mid-20s or 30s, I would go into politics to stop what’s occurring now,” he said. “Unfortunately, I’m 56 with some very bad health issues that won’t allow me to be around for a whole lot longer with my lungs and heart issues. But I definitely — I wish I could go back to get involved in politics to stop what’s occurring.”
Delta Camshaft will survive its relocation. What Washington state loses is harder to quantify: a business that has operated there since 1977, a family legacy built over nearly five decades, and an owner who — despite everything — sounds more sad than angry about what has happened to the place he built his life in. The $100,000 moving cost is the price of leaving. The price of staying, he concluded, was simply higher. For a state watching building after building go up for sale in downtown Tacoma, that calculation is becoming harder and harder to argue with.
