Washington business owner says crime, soaring costs forced him to rent out home, bathe with bucket
A Washington manufacturing owner says soaring costs and rising crime have forced him to live inside his factory, bathe using a bucket and rent out his home as he prepares to move his family’s 48-year-old business out of state.
"The cost of living is so expensive, I've actually moved out of my primary residence and have renters living in there to help me cover the cost of living," Jon Bodwell, whose family founded Delta Camshaft in 1977, told Fox News Digital in an interview.
"My day-to-day living arrangement after hours, you know, once the business closes, then it becomes Jon's house," Bodwell said. "I do not have a showering facility here. I am currently basically, just like when I was in the Marine Corps, taking the old sponge bath out of the wash tub out back, it's inside the facility, but it's basically just running hot water into a plastic bucket and dumping it over [the] top of my head, soaping up my body and then I had to rinse the bubbles off."
Bodwell is the owner of Delta Camshaft, which manufactures and repairs camshafts — rotating metal shafts that control how an engine takes in air and fuel and expels exhaust. His company is leaving Washington after nearly five decades due to rising crime, taxes and a deteriorating political climate.
He said his father started the company in 1977 from a $3,000 loan from his grandfather.
"I listen to the scanner every day when I'm sitting at my desk to notify me if I have to go outside with the firearm or something to protect my employees from what's going on outside," Bodwell said. "We get high-speed chases through here all the time. Crime is terrible. We have the front of the building barred up and all the graffiti."
Bodwell said the police are doing their jobs, but prosecutors are soft on crime and people who should end up in jail do not.
"Right now, I think that everyone is feeling it across the board," Bodwell said. "I know that I'm not the only one. There's a lot of businesses that are, you know, you see them conducting business and, like two or three weeks later, all of a sudden there's a 'For sale' sign or a liquidation notice."
Bodwell said his health insurance has skyrocketed 20% and the cost of his natural gas and electricity has almost doubled in recent years.
He is renting out his house and has moved into his facility to try to make ends meet, and said his state is going after taxpayers.
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"What they're doing is just going after the taxpayers," Bodwell said. "But if they remove all their taxpayers from the tax base, then they have to go after additional tax money from the people that are staying there. And it's going to absolutely decimate the Pacific Northwest as far as businesses and people staying as residents."
In March, Washington state Democrats passed the "millionaires tax," which Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson signed on March 30. It has been described as the state's first-ever income tax, pushed by progressives and opposed by conservatives.
A recent survey by the Association of Washington Business covered by The Center Square found that 44% of business leaders said they are considering moving their personal residence out of state, with businesses also saying they are now more than twice as likely to expand outside of Washington than within it.
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"Economically, the state of Washington, it's beyond the point of return, I believe right now. There's so much negative finance stuff going on here right now that I don't think the state will be able to recover until we do a ‘control, alt, delete,’" Bodwell said.
If given the opportunity, Bodwell said he would ask those governing the state to leave office.
"If I had the opportunity to sit down with a congressman or a political person that had some pull down in Olympia, I would ask them to please remove themselves from office, for starters, because they're doing such a poor job," Bodwell said.
Bodwell added, "These political entities that have been sitting in these seats for years have destroyed the Northwest. I mean, it's an absolutely phenomenally beautiful place to be raised and born. I'm glad I have that in my past. But now I have to pick up everything and leave out of town."
In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for Gov. Ferguson's office said, "Governor Ferguson supports small businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and our communities. They drive economic growth and create jobs. That’s why Governor Ferguson successfully advocated for the largest business tax break in state history with the Millionaires' Tax. When that goes into effect, it will reduce or eliminate B&O tax for 138,000 small businesses."
Fox News Digital reached out to the Pierce County Prosecutors Office for comment.