Ken Griffin packed up Citadel and moved it from Chicago to Miami rather than pay one more dollar to a city run by the left.
New York just elected someone who makes Chicago's old Democrats look like free-market economists.
And Florida just made sure the whole country knows what comes next.
Florida Gains $2.4 Million an Hour as New Yorkers Moving to Florida Hits New High
The Florida Chamber of Commerce erected a digital billboard this week at the corner of Broadway and West 43rd Street – right in the middle of Times Square – and the message stopped pedestrians cold.
"Thanks for the jobs!"
The sign names New York City's Socialist Democrat mayor, Zohran Mamdani, Florida's "Economic Developer of the Year."
"We wanted to thank him for the jobs, the companies, the people that they're pushing out of New York – and a lot of them are coming to Florida," Chamber CEO Mark Wilson told Fox News Digital on Monday.
The math behind that thank-you is devastating.
According to the Chamber, citing IRS migration data, Florida pulls in roughly $2.4 million in net taxable income every single hour – while New York hemorrhages $1.1 million per hour out the door.
Florida adds 551 residents per day. New York loses 115.
New York's state budget is more than double Florida's with a smaller population. And New York City's municipal budget alone runs more than $8 billion higher than the entire Florida state budget.
Florida has cut taxes more than 50 times in the last 15 years. Its economy now stands at $1.8 trillion – the 14th largest in the world.
Mamdani Fired the 9/11 Board While New York City Taxes Drive the Exodus
Democrat-run cities have been bleeding residents and businesses to low-tax red states for years.
New York shed more than 71,000 net income tax filers to other states between 2022 and 2023 – second worst in the nation. The departing taxpayers consistently out-earned the ones arriving. The net income drain totaled $10.7 billion, trailing only California.
Florida captured more high-income migrants than any other state that same period – more than three times the net gain of its nearest competitor.
Policy drove every dollar of that gap.
Mamdani took office pledging a 2% income tax surcharge on millionaires, government-run grocery stores, and a rent freeze across the city's housing stock.
Within months, Apollo Global Management announced plans to open a second headquarters in Florida or Texas. Billionaire Barry Sternlicht said his team was asking, for the first time, whether they should leave.
Then Mamdani fired the entire advisory board of the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City – a nonprofit that had raised hundreds of millions for the city since 1995, including more than $100 million for families of rescue workers killed on September 11 – and replaced it with allies aligned with his socialist agenda.
That is who New York elected. A man who purged the September 11 board to make room for his cronies.
Wilson told Fox News Digital exactly what it means.
"What Mayor Mamdani is doing is dangerous for the country," he said. "It's bad for New Yorkers. It's bad for New York. It's very harmful for the country."
"America is at a crossroads right now," Wilson said. "Our country was built on freedom and free enterprise and people having the liberty to make their dreams come true. And there's a push in our country right now to take those liberties away and to attack free enterprise. And that's never worked anywhere, and it won't work in America."
Venezuela proved it. Cuba proved it. The Soviet Union proved it. It will not work on the island of Manhattan, no matter how many rent freezes Mamdani announces or how many September 11 boards he guts.
"This isn't about spiking a football or looking at the scoreboard about Florida versus New York," Wilson said. "This is really about trying to save our country from crazy."
The scoreboard isn’t even close in the battle between socialism and capitalism.
Sources:
- Kristen Altus, "Florida names NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani 'Economic Developer of the Year' in Times Square campaign," Fox Business, August 10, 2026.
- "Migration in Minutes: Latest IRS Data on Interstate Migration Shows Taxpayers Continuing to Flee California and New York," National Taxpayers Union Foundation, April 8, 2026.
- "State Migration Trends: Taxes & State Population: IRS Data," Tax Foundation, June 22, 2026.
- "GOP candidate warns NYC Mayor Mamdani's taxes will drive capital away," Fox News, May 7, 2026.
- "Mamdani's War on New York Business Is a Double-Header," PJ Media, August 4, 2026.
- "Florida Trolls Mamdani in Spectacular Fashion Right in the Heart of Times Square," RedState, August 10, 2026.