Capital goes where it’s welcome. This isn’t some obscure economic theory. It’s common sense — the kind your grandfather understood without needing a degree from Columbia. Yet somehow, every new crop of progressive politicians manages to forget it. They raise taxes, vilify the people who actually produce wealth, and then act stunned when the moving trucks show up.

Another once-great American city is learning this lesson right now. And the price tag should stop every taxpayer in the country cold.

From the Post Millennial:

In recent years the Empire State has been seeing a massive decline in millionaires fueling the state’s tax revenues, leading to nearly $11 billion in losses, according to a recently released study.

The study, released on Monday by the Citizen Budget Commission, comes as New Yorkers have feared that socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is looking to raise taxes even further and drive more wealthy New Yorkers from the state.

A socialist takes a wrecking ball to prosperity

Zohran Mamdani didn’t start New York’s decline. But the self-described socialist has turned a slow bleed into a hemorrhage. His governing philosophy boils down to three words: punish the successful. And he pursues it with the confidence of a man who has never once wondered where government revenue actually originates.

Consider his masterclass in diplomatic self-destruction. When New York implemented a pied-à-terre tax on luxury second homes, Mamdani didn’t just celebrate the policy. He filmed a gloating social media video outside billionaire Ken Griffin’s $238 million Manhattan penthouse — the political equivalent of keying someone’s car and posting the footage online. Griffin’s response carried considerably more weight: he threatened to pull a $6 billion midtown development project.

Pause on that number. Six billion dollars. Thousands of construction jobs, permanent positions, and decades of tax revenue — all jeopardized because the mayor treats governance like a TikTok audition.

Meanwhile, Mamdani has been pressuring Governor Kathy Hochul to hike income taxes on the wealthy even further. Hochul, eyeing re-election, has resisted direct rate increases. Smart move on her part. But the damage from the mayor’s relentless anti-wealth crusade extends well beyond any single tax bill. It’s the signal he’s sending. And the wealthy are receiving it loud and clear.

The scoreboard doesn’t lie

The Citizen Budget Commission’s data is merciless. New York’s share of the nation’s millionaires cratered from 12.7 percent to 8.7 percent between 2010 and 2022. That’s the steepest decline of any state in America. The Empire State did add roughly 34,000 millionaires during that stretch — but the competition wasn’t standing still. California and Texas tripled their millionaire populations. Florida quadrupled.

Had New York simply held its ground, personal income tax collections would have been $10.7 billion higher in 2022 alone. The Tax Foundation now ranks New York dead last in state competitiveness. Dead. Last. Per capita state and local tax collections sit at $12,495 — seventy-eight percent above the national average.

“Wall Street is the golden goose. But for how long?” asked Abir Mandal, senior state policy analyst with the Tax Foundation. Uncomfortable question. Necessary one.

Here’s what makes it genuinely precarious: New York’s top one percent of earners pay approximately forty-five percent of all state income taxes. That’s not a tax base. That’s a house of cards balanced on a shrinking deck.

The people Mamdani claims to champion will suffer most

This is the part that should infuriate you. When the wealthy relocate to Florida or Texas, they land on their feet. They always do. The people who get crushed are the working families, the small business owners, the vulnerable New Yorkers who depend on the city services that wealthy taxpayers fund.

Steve Fulop, CEO of the Partnership for New York City, put it with admirable directness: “The people leaving are the ones paying the largest share of a budget that funds the social programs meant to help our most vulnerable.”

And Mamdani’s response to all of this? He waved off the CBC study. Called fears of wealthy flight “overblown.” Insisted “the wealthiest can do a little bit more.” A little bit more. The man is presiding over a state that taxes its residents seventy-eight percent above the national average, watching eleven billion dollars evaporate, and his prescription is to squeeze harder.

The states welcoming success — Texas, Florida, Tennessee — are booming. The ones that treat prosperity like a crime are hollowing out from the inside. New York’s tragedy isn’t a lack of wealth. It’s a mayor who believes wealth is something to be confiscated rather than cultivated. The last ones out won’t need to bother with the lights. There won’t be anyone left to pay the electric bill.

Key Takeaways

• New York’s tax-the-rich policies have driven away $11 billion in annual revenue.
• Socialist Mayor Mamdani’s antagonistic rhetoric is accelerating wealthy residents’ departure.
• New York now ranks dead last in state competitiveness, losing millionaires to Florida and Texas.
• Working families — not the wealthy — ultimately bear the cost of this exodus.

Sources: The Post Millennial, New York Post