In the days and weeks after democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani clinched the Democratic Party nomination in the New York City mayoral race, apocalyptic rumors began to swirl of the wealthy running for the hills. Jim Bianco, president of the financial analysis firm Bianco Research, warned that New York City was committing “suicide by mayor.” Billionaire Trump backer Bill Ackman warned of an exodus of elites who won’t tolerate the higher taxes for expanded public services that Mamdani proposes. Ackman offered to bankroll a Mamdani opponent on the pretext of saving the city from destruction should the rich leave and take their tax revenue with them.
Florida played an outsize role in the drama. The wealth concentration and financial activity in the Palm Beach–Miami corridor pales in comparison to New York, but a recent influx of rich New Yorkers has nevertheless popularized the idea of a “Wall Street South.” The Manhattan real estate broker and reality television star Ryan Serhant told the New York Post that his “number one job will be moving people from New York to Florida.” Ackman cited hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin’s decision to move the headquarters of Citadel from Chicago to Miami, warning that Mamdani would inspire the same effect “on steroids.” Governor Kathy Hochul took the bait, saying of Mamdani’s proposed tax hikes on the rich, “I don’t want to lose any more people to Palm Beach.”
New York City elites’ message is clear: tax our wealth, and we’ll just go be wealthy somewhere else. You have a problem with Wall Street? Try funding your precious public infrastructure projects and social programs after Wall Street relocates all of its bajillions to another state entirely.
These threats are no doubt overblown. In a study by the Fiscal Policy Institute, researchers Emily Eisner and Andrew Perry found that New York State’s millionaire population is actually growing, not shrinking, contradicting the…
Auteur: Meagan Day
