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NY Governor Hochel Begs Millionaires To Move Back To NY
New York is a mess. You got the Socialist Democrat Zohran Mamdami getting elected Mayor of New York City and offering everything free. From child care to education, to housing, and healthcare. However, New York faces a crisis of $12 billion dollar in deficit. There is no money. The state’s richest are moving out of state many relocating to Florida, Texas, and other tax friendly state. Mamdami wants to hike taxes on the rich and if the city is short of fund, he plans on increasing property taxes. NY Governor Kathy Hochel said on a press conference to New Yorker who left the state for them to come back. Hochel was begging. Unbelieveable. What is this world coming too. It seems like Red States are going broke, and a lot of fraud is getting discovered. Please feel to contribute to this post if you know something that may add more context to this developing story.
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Zohran Mamdani was elected NYC mayor in November 2025 and will take office in January 2026. He will become the youngest mayor in 100 years as well as the first South Asian and Muslim mayor after defeating professional politician Andrew Cuomo (who was running as an independent) and Curtis Sliwa.
- As a 34-year-old democratic socialist and former state assemblymember, he will continue to hold positions in public office after the assembly as he also has already campaigned to hold future public office positions (NJ ASSEMBLY member).
- Mamdani advocates for expanded universal childcare, affordable housing, and more accessible public transportation and social services.
- His critics call him an “everything free” socialist as he advocates for more taxation on the rich and corporations and social service cost restructuring.
NYC’s Budget Situation
The $12 billion figure aligns with recent projections. NYC Comptroller Mark Levine (in January 2026) identified a $2.2 billion shortfall for FY2026 and $10.4 billion for FY2027. Other monitors (Independent Budget Office, Citizens Budget Commission, State Comptroller) have also identified billions in multi-year shortfalls which were the largest since the Great Recession.
While some may find Mamdani’s comments surprising or think he is carrying over previous administrations, many of these problems, including rampant spending, prepayment issues, risks of an economic slowdown, and structural shifts at the federal level, were identified well before the election. Mamdani stated that the recent state contribution of $1.5 billion in aid brought the immediate gap closer to $7 billion. However, he is still indicating that if he needs to close the shortfall gaps to fund his agenda, he will do so with a “tax the rich” campaign and property tax revisions.
Exiting Affluents
High-income individuals and businesses are indeed leaving. Data from the IRS and relocation companies indicate that thousands of businesses and affluent individuals have relocated to Florida and Texas, as well as other states with no or low-income taxes, as of 2020-2025, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars in taxable income. Miami has become a favorite destination for high-net-worth individuals and has attracted many wealthy and middle-class individuals leaving New York City, which is why Florida became the most sought-after destination. Although New York City experienced a net decrease in population, the percentage decline was low relative to the city’s population.
This reduces the tax base, where the top 1% of income earners in New York pay about 40% of state income taxes. Therefore, additional tax increases will likely be the cause of a further increase in the trends (which is observed in numerous high-tax jurisdictions and is a quintessential Laffer-curve effect).### Comments from Governor Kathy Hochul
Most New Yorkers are familiar with Hochul’s now infamous comments at a recent Politico summit where she asked wealth New Yorkers to return in a more hospitable tone than she’s used to (“go down to Palm Beach and see who we can bring back home because our tax base has been eroded”). She has linked it to an advocacy of the state’s generous social programs. Critics pounced at the flip reversal; she has previously downplayed or even ridiculed outflows.
Context Of The Red States
In the contrary, the most recent data available doesn’t show the red states generally ‘going broke’. Texas and Florida (where many NY exiles are moving to) are experiencing huge positive net migration of people, businesses and taxable wealth and are thus frequently running fiscal surpluses or maintaining strong fiscal positions because of no state income taxes, recent energy booms and rising populations. The most recent migration trends report has New York at the bottom of the list of states with positive net domestic migration and ends little more than just a crossing of the border with the ‘in flow’ dominated by the Sun Belt red states.
Fraud detection is a national problem (GAO estimates hundreds of billions annually in improper payments across programs). The current federal administration is spotlighting large-scale fraud allegations in blue states like Minnesota (welfare/childcare fraud), and California and New York—defrauding the government by committing fraud and freezing funds. However, fraud is not exclusive to blue states (Mississippi welfare fraud issues, Florida benefits fraud). There is no evidence of fraud-based fiscal collapse in red states, many of which are fiscally healthier than their high-tax peers.
This means that New York’s problems are a case study in high taxes, high spending and high out-migration. The question now is whether Mamdani’s solution (more taxes and more services) is going to close the gap without further accelerating the out-migration. The wealthy flight data and budgetary math are really impossible to ignore at this point. We are in interesting times, and the story is really crying out for data over ideology.
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