Hochul begs wealthy New Yorkers who fled to Florida to come home and pay taxes

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is begging wealthy New Yorkers who have moved away from the state to come back to the state in order to support the "generous social programs" of the state with their tax dollars.

"I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state. Now, there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Ok, cut me the checks if you want to be supportive, but maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home," Hochul said during an interview with Politico.

She added that "our tax base has been eroded" after there has been "competition with other states."

"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. And I would say remote work changed everything," she added. "There were people who could only work in an office in Manhattan and work in New York state. And they were captives to our state, they were going to stay. We saw that that's not the case. Wall Street businesses looking at Texas, they're not going there because they have a nicer governor. They're going there because of the tax rate."

The New York Stock Exchange has launched a branch in Dallas, as worries over tax costs in the Big Apple have increased. NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani has also promised to increase taxes on the wealthy in the city as well as corporations, pointing to the wealthy for the solution but saying that Hochul has been standing in the way.

In February, Mamdani laid out his plan and warned Hochul that if the state did not increase the tax burden on wealthy New Yorkers to provide funding for his programs, the city would raise property taxes on everyday residents of the Big Apple in order to fill a budget gap. 

“There are two paths to bridge this gap. The first is the most sustainable and the fairest path," Mamdani said at the time. "This is the path of ending the drain on our city and raising taxes on the richest New Yorkers and the most profitable corporations. The onus for resolving this crisis should not be placed on the backs of working and middle-class New Yorkers if we do not fix the structural imbalance and do not heed the calls of New Yorkers to raise taxes on the wealthy."

"And if we do not go down the first path, the city will be forced down a second, more harmful path. Faced with no other choice, the city would have to exercise the only revenue lever fully within our own control. We would have to raise property taxes," he added at the time.