Below is my column in the New York Post on the sharp decline in millionaires in New York, costing the state billions as many flee. The exodus has been building for years but may now be accelerating. As Mayor Mamdani holds another press conference promising to end the “violence of evictions,” businesses are reading the writing on the wall. Rather than work to make the state more attractive to wealthy residents and businesses, Democrats are seeking to diminish the appeal of two-tax states. They want to tap into a long-barred area of taxation: the wealth rather than just the income of citizens. By passing a national wealth tax, Democrats will reduce the benefit of fleeing high-tax states like California and New York.
Here is the column:
“Start spreadin’ the news, I’m leavin’ today” — that’s how the famous song “New York, New York” captures the Big Apple’s draw.
Today, the line is becoming more ironic than iconic: Many people are indeed leaving … from New York, New York.
Worse yet, those “vagabond shoes” that “are longing to stray” are on the feet of the wealthiest New Yorkers.
And as they flee, according to a new study, they’re taking away billions in badly needed tax revenue.
As Mayor Zohran Mamdani and others pledge massive social programs and free services by taxing the wealthy, the wealthy are just melting away.
The reason is simple: if “you can make it there, you can make it anywhere.”
In today’s economy, it’s no longer necessary or even particularly beneficial to be in New York to make money in financial and other areas.
When any business meeting is a screen and a click away, you can go to a low-tax state like Florida or Texas and do as well as you can in the Big Apple.
Not surprisingly, many are choosing the money over the mystique and the madness.
This week the Citizens Budget Commission reported that New York’s share of millionaires fell from 12.7% in 2010 to 8.7% in 2022 — the largest drop of any state.
The exodus of wealthy citizens left New York short $10.7 billion in tax revenue.
By denouncing the remaining wealthy as effectively freeloaders who are “not paying their fair share,” Mamdani is only spurring them on.
It’s a demonstrably false claim that I discuss in my book Rage and the Republic — and part of a growing class-warfare theme the left is deliberately using to fuel political rage.
Yet it’s easy to form a mob — and far more difficult to control it.
That is particularly the case when your economic policies destroy your economy, and your ability to pay for all the free services that you’ve promised.
There’s a good-faith debate to be had over optimal tax levels, but the fact is that the top 10% of Americans pay more in taxes than the other 90% of the country. The top 1% pays roughly 40% of federal taxes.
As rational actors flee the state, Mamdani and New York Democrats are forced to cull the shrinking herd of high-end taxpayers who remain, layering on special fees like a pied-à-terre tax to be imposed on NYC’s luxury property owners.
And rather than change course to make New York a more attractive place to do business and live, national Democrats are moving to make other states no better — by nationalizing wealth taxes and by taxing fleeing citizens as if they still lived in the state.
Many are following Sen. Bernie Sanders’ and Rep. Ro Khanna’s call to impose a federal wealth tax they’ve dubbed the Billionaire Tax.
The idea is to stem the exodus from California and New York by giving the highest earners no place to go . . . except out of the country.
That’s the option many took when similar wealth taxes were attempted in countries like France, only to be rescinded after doing massive economic damage.
Fleecing the wealthy is a revenue loser.
New York is losing billions, and California has reportedly lost trillions due to top taxpayers’ departure.
Unwilling to adopt greater fiscal restraints and truly compete for businesses and residents, Democrats are looking for pockets of new areas to tax.
The wealth tax is a virtual bonanza of untapped revenue — if it can make it through the courts.
Our Constitution was amended in 1913 to allow for an income tax, not a wealth tax.
Once you pay taxes on what you earn, you’re supposed to be able to use your hard-earned money to buy whatever you wish, from bikes to boats.
Democrats now want to tax those possessions: “your Rembrandts, your stock portfolio, your diamonds and your yachts,” as Sen. Elizabeth Warren once dramatically warned.
And Khanna recently confirmed what some of us have been saying for years: The Billionaire Tax isn’t only for billionaires.
“The tax should not stop at billionaires,” he said in a pitch to his party’s rising socialist movement; “it must reach centimillionaires. The tax has to reach all fortunes $50 million and up.”
Khanna and others hope that, once taken nationally, a wealth tax would destroy the benefit of moving to low-tax states — and open up literally trillions in new potential revenue.
In the meantime, New York will continue to burn billions as it taps its dwindling number of millionaires.
As their wealthy neighbors depart, those remaining will have to make up for their loss.
Being among the last to leave New York will be a costly distinction.
They will indeed “wake up” — and find that they’re “king of the hill, top of the list” for wealth redistribution.
Jonathan Turley is a law professor and the New York Times bestselling author of “Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution.”
There was always a massive internal contradiction in the globalist-leftist movement: the globalists want to get richer, trading with leftwing, anti-American trade partners, and the leftists are determined to make just about everybody poorer (with the possible exception of themselves). This same internal contradiction is unraveling all over the world, as Xi cracks down on industrialists in China and Mamdani seeks to sabotage America’s economy by poisoning the Big Apple. Globalism is killing itself with war, crackdowns, and terrorism, and the left has decided to carve up the cadaver before it rots.
At some point, our clueless globalists had better choose a side other than suicide. Time to revisit patriotism, Mr. Chamber of Commerce.
As for academe, they sold their souls for tuition money from third-world dictatorships. CNN and MSNever are increasingly just pipe organs for international audiences that hate America. Don’t expect a change of heart from any of those liars and traitors. Their business models won’t allow it.
I’m beginning to wonder if CNN and MSNOW should register as foreign agents. Baghdad Bob would have to.
@Diogenes
Excellent. And I personally don’t expect any change of heart whatsoever after the tripling or even quadrupling down of the past ten years in particular. This is simply who the modern left are, now, and it is quite a tangled web. Regardless of candidate or office, voting blue today is voting for precisely what you have described, across the board, and across the globe. The old stalwarts, voters and officials alike, that still think it’s fringe are, again, the kind of asleep that might necessitate the checking for a pulse.
Maine Democrats might replace a deranged quasi-NAZI with a transgender checkbox. I would consider that a quadrupling down.
@ Diogenes
Excellent analysis! What makes the current state of affairs even more problematic is that the socialist insurgents who seek control at various levels of government seem to be economically illiterate. The desire to control has trumped common sense. They also lack perspective on historical developments that brought us to this place. It is absolutely terrifying to see so many in this country rejecting our Western values so openly.
Under communism, everyone must be equally poor as it is the struggle against ‘anyone better off than me’. (called envy by non-commies)
“it must reach” is RoKha’s reach for eveyone’s wallet. Same thing a mugger does.
Seems like the billionaires are fleeing everywhere to avoid being taxed.
….just pay your f***ing taxes. It’s not like you don’t have enough money for 20 lifetimes or anything like that.
the top 1% pays 40% of all taxes. Sure sounds like they are paying their taxes to me.
That is a MAGA myth.
It is correct that the top 1% pay 40% of income taxes, but the problem is that the mega-billionaires are not included in that 1% because they pay little to no income tax. They do not have taxable earned income. Musk does not draw a salary from any of his companies. Bezos draws a nominal salary of $81,400 from Amazon. They finance their lifestyle with low interest 3% loans by pledging their vast stock holdings as collateral. Their fancy cars and jets and yachts are owned by their companies. Their homes are owned by their companies and they simply pay rent to themselves using the money they borrow from the banks. They NEVER sell their stock to pay for their living expenses. They have no taxable personal income.
As far as the IRS is concerned they are not part of the top 1% of income tax payers for the simple reason that they do not pay personal income taxes.
you are wrong. reading is fundamental. you do not represent modern man, they can read and look up simple stuff like this.
Commies hate this one trick.
Why is it greed to want to keep what I’ve worked hard for yet it’s not greed to take it from others? Dirty murderous commie much?
Entrepreneurship requires risk taking. When entrepreneurs are successful, they create jobs in the private sector. We need more job creation in the private sector and fewer government employees.
“. . . 1% because they pay little to no income tax.”
Really?
Produce their tax returns. Just three years worth.
Sam
Remember when the libs claimed Trump didn’t pay his taxes, until the IRS leaked them.
That blew up in their faces.
They do pay their taxes, you just want to steal from them.
To a liberal greed is wanting to keep your money while generosity is wanting to take other people’s money.
Anon: They are paying, silly.
Oh, go on. Tell us what you think the “fair share” of someone else’s wealth is. If it was acquired legally, it is nobody’s business but theirs how much money they have, or, what they do with it. Envy (and, its brother, Greed) is a deadly sin.
Re: “Just pay your…..”. It’s the financial risk takers who are the movers and shakers of a capitalist economy. Profit is the reward for assuming the risk for loss and is that which this “Pocahontas Progressive’ advocates do nothing freeloaders are entitled to share. Uff!!!!
@ZZDoc
Precisely!
OK, how much did you pay in income taxes last year commie?
“vagabond shoes” will be all over NYC soon.
Defund Communism Now!
Where is X to tell me this isn’t happening????
He’s on AI right now “writing” his response.
“Rather than work to make the state more attractive to wealthy residents and businesses . . .” (JT)
To give credit where it’s due, the socialist Mamdani is making the City more attractive to bums and drug addicts. There’s a new skid row that has captured a 12-block section of the West Side.
BTW, the socialist’s calling card is: “Make life more affordable.” It is certainly true that a shanty town is more affordable than is a single-family home. Just as bread is more affordable than meat. And a potato sack more affordable than a business suit or evening gown.
That new skid row is a feature of Mamdami’s platform. more victims that need ‘saving’. gonna cost a lot but he’s willing to spend your money doing it.
Unfortunately the socialists don’t stop at just you wearing a potato sack, eventually they eat you. It’s happened before, and while humanity JUST recently got cannibalism under control. Gotta learn from history or repeat it! This is why the founders wrote stuff down!
“Trump and Zeldin and Molinaro – just jump on a bus and head down to Florida where you belong. OK? Get out of town. Because you don’t represent our values,”
— New York governor, Kathy Hochul, 2022
“Maybe the first step should be to go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded,”
“I have to look at the fact that we are in competition with other states who have less of a tax burden on their corporations and their individuals,”
— New York governor, Kathy Hochul, 2026
https://nypost.com/2026/03/18/us-news/kathy-hochul-begs-wealthy-new-yorkers-to-come-back-as-mamdani-pressures-her-to-hike-their-taxes/
Proving that she is a late learner. But sometimes, it is too late.
I’m not sure about that. Her public profile reflects that she went to law school. However, when I checked the attorney registry on the NYS OCA, I didn’t see her name listed.
Obviously Hochul was one of us short bus kids.
-g
@UpstateFarmer
I am an Upstate New Yorker. It has been difficult for us to ride out Ms. Hochul’s term as governor.
Take away wealth. Take away freedom of speech. Take away the right to keep and bear arms. Take away the Electoral College. Take away the right to pray in public. Take away inner city education. Take away the Senate. Take away the Supreme Court. Take away the southern border. Take away law enforcement. Take away I Pledge Allegiance To The Flag Of The United States Of America. See the pattern?
“See the pattern?”
Easily seen for any person with a brain who isn’t massively delusional. The “pattern”, and the objective, is to turn the US into Communist Cuba, and all that implies.
Republicans need to DEFUND the Democrat Machine
Currently the WORSE Democrats make it…the MORE Federal Money they get!
END THAT…STOP Aid to cities, states
Outlaw Public Unions the Democrat Political Army!
Come On Man – the Lefty Wealth Tax is a wonderful thing and the Billionaire-Millionaire marketing is the just the Trojan Horse Tax needed to start the socialist fiscal scheme. Once you get the wealthy stripped down and realize that is not enough to create Paradise then you just start creating lower and lower brackets each year to capture more MOOLAH from the rest of the low IQ Sheeple. That scam is already in place for things like Medicare (IRMAA) and Net Investment Tax so it just needs to leak into After Tax Assets like EVERYTHING ELSE YOU OWN! Paradise is just around the corner so hang on!!! IDIOTS!
I doubt that the wealth tax is the ultimate goal. It’s only a means to disrupt and destroy a capitalist system. A wealth tax as these people plan it would so disrupt economics of the nation it would crash. How can you be an innovator when you sustain years of losses even as you accumulate assets on your way to building a business. There will be a lot of wealth in the assets as you build but little enough cash. If you suddenly have a wealth tax you will have to likely cash out your assets in order to pay the tax. In many startups, this will effectively end them and in others it will be a serious impairment to growth and might kill them over a longer period of time. The country is built on innovation and this tax has the likelihood of killing the innovation engine and to Impair even building more conventional businesses.
So is the question just more tax revenue or an attempt to crash the whole system and provoke a crisis and/or revolution.
GEB,
I think it is an attempt to crash the system, and then rebuild the system the way they want it.
With them in charge of course.
“. . . on your way to building a business.”
According to our first anti-American president (Obama): “You didn’t build that.”
And since you didn’t build it, the mob has every “right” to loot it.
This is how democracies destroy themselves. The people are told that a legitimate use of government is to take money from some people and to give it to others. Those people get elected. Endless class warfare is inevitable. Eventually, government will have no other function other than transferring wealth.
“This is how democracies destroy themselves.” Can you name any democracies that were destroyed by a wealth tax?
France sure tried. They set their country back economically by a generation. They were able to pull back from pure communist madness at the last second.
No, because we invented our form of ‘democracy’ called a Constitutional Republic’. Reading is fundamental.
We have nothing to compare it to. However, The USA did get started over taxation. again, reading is fundamental.
are you just greedy and want ‘free money’?
Killing tge goose that lays the golden egg by cutting it open to get even more golde…That proverb from our childhood was invented out of thin air.
And then the day will arrive when there is no wealth to transfer…………………………
Achtually….
When socialists talk about transference of wealth, they mean it. They will give you a free bus ride, sure. However, most of the transfer will go to them. They’ll all have summer homes, like Bernie. I wonder if they will call them dachas. The private jet business will remain healthy, but the socialist leaders will be flying them. The Rembrandt will be displayed no longer in the home of the rich, but the humble socialist rulers. These prominent socialist leaders are chomping at the bit to help (themselves).
Sounds to me like what the Nazis did after the took power. Von Ribbentrop, Goring, Hitler, Goebbels, etc. stealing and accumulating wealth by plundering conquered nations and, of course, the Jews.
Anon…might want to learn actual history
End Federal Aid to cities, states, non-profits
outlaw public unions
allow democrats to destroy themselves
STOP rescuing them!
Glad we moved over 5 years ago to Nuevo Galt’s Gulch, aka Tennessee. Even such things like automobiles are a form of wealth tax in CA. When we left registration “fees” totaled over $4,000 per year for 3 cars and an RV. When we arrived in TN the young clerk apologized that our registrations would be so high because this was the first time the vehicles were being registered in the county. That charge was $156 for all 4 vehicles, but she was quick to note that in future years renewals would be $27 per!
Just remember why you left when you vote. We don’t want the crap down here!
Amen and amen
20% of the residents of our TN community came from CA, 10% from IL and nearly 10% from NY. Confused people so far as I can tell do not move here.
So you moved to TN to register 4 vehicles? Wait, wait, didn’t you start out with just 3 vehicles, but a sentence later, it 4. Amazing how that wealth tax works.
Read again—3 cars and an RV. An RV is a vehicle.
Then again, you have to be humble since Anonymous can’t count. . .he’s too busy lambasting the comments of others.
HAHAHAHA, So true.
The annony has never been known for reading comprehension or high IQ.
Reading comprehension is a good thing.. “3 cars plus and RV” = 4 vehicles.
An RV is a vehicle and must be registered to operate on the roads. This is not a complicated concept.
OMG. Try re-reading again Ano.
You think you are clever, dear. You are not.
Learn to read AND comprehend…moron.
Read better 3 cars and an RV. 3+ 1= 4 unless you were educated recently in public school.
3 + 1 = 4.
Try to keep up.
“3 cars and an RV”. That makes four vehicles.
@MYoung
These issues don’t simply happen as if by magic.
I hate to be a jerk, but yes. One can’t be thrilled life is so much better and then vote in the manner that destroyed the place one fled. My first thought upon reading a piece like this is, ‘Ok, but where are they going, and what are their intentions once they are established there?’.
James,
I have friends and family in FL.
They say all the NYers who move there, are either Republicans escaping NY, or reformed Democrats who have “seen the light,” and are now Republicans or Independents who vote Republican.
The creation of, and building of housing subdivisions in the car, which I live is fierce. My concerns in this regard, as a Floridian, is the fact that both Miami, and Boca Raton, have voted Democrat for their chief executive. Former mayor of Boca Raton is running as a Republican in his candidate, see for the House of Representatives, but there are some serious questions as to whether or not he is a Rhino. The midterms will bear witness as to what direction this migration is steering the state.
The mayor of Miami only won that race because two republicans split the votes on a three-way ticket. This is a perfect example of how republicans are their own worst enemy and can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, if given any chance. This pretty much sums up the party.
Did Mandami win in NYC because too few Democrats voted in the primaries, while it is reported that the Muslim vote in the primaries was in the high 90s?
Being vigilant is important.
@Upstate
That’s generally been my experience and line of reasoning as well, but that is also not a mass exodus of any and all comers (or goers in this case, I guess) due to virtual collapse. Detroit was an object lesson no one paid attention to. I also saw it happen to my hometown, my adopted hometown, and again to another of my family’s ancestral home states, it can happen anywhere. I do my best to maintain the same optimism and open-mindedness as you, though.
I also say this as someone who at one time lived (against my preference, it was a no-choice situation) in CA for a number of years (and my father was born in L.A., though he didn’t grow up there), and not the only true blue state either my wife or I have lived in throughout our lives, including NY.
It cost close to $600 to register two older, economy four door sedans in CA, and that is before all of the weird fees or maintenance checks etc., or the eye watering at times $4 – $5/gallon difference in the gasoline prices. Where we are now, which is purple but leans red, if we continue with the same metric, we did both of our cars for under $100. We greatly prefer that, but trust me, we are not at all confused about why it is the case, or why the streets are not full of potholes or the tragedy of rampant addiction.
” what are their intentions once they are established there?”
Whether conscious intention or not, that is typically what happens with that kind of migration. The newcomers waste little time in recreating the causes of what they fled from. NTM that in Tennessee, Memphis has been a hotbed of leftists and socialism for decades, and more recently Nashville has followed that road. Like any other virulent infection, socialism tends to spread rapidly, and if recent residents like the apparently overconfident OP do not exercise extreme diligence, the smaller hamlets will not be far behind.
@ I Don Wannutono
I have seen the same. People need to stop kidding themselves about it, and wrest themselves from their cocoons while the import is still hypothetical. Was in Nashville once and was in a Whole Foods; Nicole Kidman was there with her boyfriend. Everyone ooed and ahhed, of course, but failed to realize any further implications of a trend, and no offense to Nicole, she is free to do whatever she likes as well. Just sayin’. She moved to Nashville, not Bakersfield or Amarillo. 🤷🏻♂️
“Was in Nashville once and was in a Whole Foods;”
From 1996 to 2015 I was in corporate IT management for a >$1 BLN multinational mineral miner that had a site in Camden, and another near Caryville, I was on-site at both locations on several occasions in the late 1990s to early 2000s. The staff at both locations were very, very conservative. They despised Memphis, but were quite fond of Nashville. I’m honestly uncertain that the Nashville of that era had enough elitist residents to support a Whole Foods.
Oh, BTW, after the county-wide property revaluation this year (it happens once every 5 years), our real estate tax rate has been reduced from a whopping 0.44% rate to a nicer 0.28% rate!
“Nuevo Galt’s Gulch, aka Tennessee.
Enjoy that while you can, but I suggest that you not delude yourself that Tennessee posses some magical immunity to what is happening elsewhere. The state may be a holdout, but if the national trend envisioned by the Democrats is realized, it will ultimately succumb. Take a close look at what has been going on in Memphis for decades and has more recently infected Nashville.
Socialism means voting for thieves to steal–at gunpoint–from some people to give to you. It is based on greed and envy. Those guys have more than me, so I will elect people who will take from them and give to me. If it’s done through elections, it’s morally justified, right? Meanwhile, the hyperwealthy like Khanna (who married his way into luxury), Newsom (with his French Laundry dinners and vineyard), Pritzker (his nepobaby fortune allowing him unlimited food), Sanders (three houses and many millions of dollars in the bank), and Mamdani (whose uberrich parents made sure he went to the most expensive schools in the world, but still somehow lived in a rent-stabilized apartment), refuse to surrender their own fortunes to the less fortunate. No, these hypocrites hoard their wealth while calling for the government to take from others so they can spread it around to special interest groups.
Question. Did you ever live, work, play in a socialist society. At least visited one? If so, which one. When?
no playing in socialist society. just work because there are always those less well off than you to support. Get back to work!!!
No, I haven’t. I never fell off a building either, but I imagine it would hurt.
“The wealth tax is a virtual bonanza of untapped revenue — if it can make it through the courts.”
Can we stop calling theft revenue?
The wealth tax is a virtual bonanza of untapped THEFT — if it can make it through the courts.
Khanna and others hope that, once taken nationally, a wealth tax would destroy the benefit of moving to low-tax states — and open up literally trillions in new potential THEFT.
It may have escaped your [purview, but a wealth tax already exists, going on some 110 years. Each state has one. The federal gov. too. Do you atr leats know what they’re called?
tell us?
the wealthier you are the higher the percentage of your money in taxes.
WE HAVE A WEALTH TAX YOU STUPID COMMIES!
deal with it, you are just super-greedy crappy sub-humans.
Economics is a human construct. The data to be examined have been selected by a small group of “scientists” over the last two centuries. Economic predictions have met only limited success because so little is understood about the various factors involved in understanding or even defining economics. That having been said it is obvious that we do not know how to construct a welfare state that doesn’t impoverish the entity that is attempting to construct it. Someone or something has to pay the bills. Benjamin Franklin said, “We can have a republic if we can keep it.” This has been tested several times in American history. For example we had the Civil War, the massive depression between the world wars, and now the ascension of the lowest common denominator, so-called academic mob of our time, which has turned out economic illiterates such as Zoran Mamdani and Karen Bass. The 5% of the electorate who put these incompetents in office are to blame immediately but in fact it’s the laziness, apathy, and indifference of the rest of us that has caused this problem.
Human construct? WTF? If you’re so smart how come you ain’t POTUS?
Jack that is DUMB STUFF
Economics is fundamentally the study of human nature. Capitalism, ie a free, competitive market most closely mirrors human nature. The interplay of supply and demand, the mechanism of pricing, the cost of capital ie interest rates, taxation and the cost of regulation are all inputs that are studied. The Laffer Curve demonstrates that tax rates such as those proposed by our would be masters would result in lower tax revenue. We saw that demonstrated most recently in the first Trump term when they lowered tax rates and the regulatory burden of the preceding Obama administration and economic growth accelerated along with incomes and tax revenue. Avg income for workers increased by $6000/yr. Excessive taxation hurts those at the lowest level most of all.
Another word for economics is ‘self-interest’.
Self-interest built America.
Milton Friedman used to be on PBS! can you believe it?
If you can leave, leave. Let the idiots stew in their own cesspool.
Within New York City alone, city and state reports estimate the undocumented population is roughly between 535,000 to 560,000 Center for Migration Studies of New York.
Hey dustoff, rewrite that jumble would you please. Makes no sense.
Learn to read ano
It came from (Center for Migration Studies of New York.)
DustOff,
Well, the annony has already proven to us today the annony needs to take a college level remedial class in not just reading but math too.
Actually, given the disdain Anon posts the class should be in high school.
English not your best language? I can translate if you’d like Mr. foreigner.
Think for a minute what impact that will have on the census. That number will far outweigh the number that are departing. The census is used to apportion the seats in the House. It also determines the number of electors a state gets in the electoral college. Allocation of federal dollars in many programs is determined by population. SCOTUS has already said that the census must include all, citizen and non-citizen alike. IMO that was the underlying reason for the open borders during the Biden debacle. They don’t have to vote, just be present in large enough numbers to swing the system towards the Democrats.
Remember when biden dropped thousands of illegals into NY.
Someone has to pay the bills.
Suckers.
Drooped you say? That must have hurt when they hit the ground.
Drooped? What a MORON ANON
the BILL payer is the Federal Government
NY gets TWICE the federal aid per person as FL!
It is a FEATURE….not a flaw!
“the BILL payer is the Federal Government”
The Federal government has no way to independently earn money. The bill payer is you and me.
DustOff,
Yes.
I also recall then mayor Eric Adams calling out the Biden admin for doing exactly that and asking for help to pay for all of Biden’s illegals.