Hochul Begs Rich People to Come Back From Florida. She Forgot She Is the Reason They Left.
The governor needs "high net worth" individuals to fund her programs. Meanwhile, Mamdani's socialist wing is making sure they never return. #NewYork
There are moments in politics where somebody says something so honest, so accidentally revealing, that you almost feel bad for them. Almost.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul provided one of those moments last week when she publicly asked wealthy New Yorkers to visit Florida and recruit rich people to come back. Her reason? "Our tax base has been eroded."
She then added, with zero apparent self-awareness, that she needs individuals with "high net worth to support the generous social programs that we wanna have in our state."
The governor of New York just admitted three things at once:
Wealthy people left
The state cannot fund its programs without them
She has no intention of changing the policies that made them leave
That is not a policy position. That is a hostage negotiation where the hostage already escaped.
Why They Left
New York's top state income tax rate is over 10 percent. Add New York City's local income tax and you are looking at a combined rate north of 13 percent on high earners. Florida's state income tax rate is zero. Not low. Not competitive. Zero.
The math is not complicated. A hedge fund manager earning $10 million per year saves over $1.3 million annually just by changing his address to Miami. No policy change required. Just a moving truck.
IRS migration data has consistently shown New York losing billions in adjusted gross income to Florida every single year. This is not a new trend. It has been happening for over a decade. Hochul is not discovering a problem. She is admitting she cannot fix the one she inherited and made worse.
The Admission Nobody Is Talking About
Here is the line that should be on a billboard: "generous social programs that we wanna have in our state."
That sentence is the entire conservative argument about progressive economics, delivered by a progressive governor, on camera, voluntarily.
She is saying, out loud, that New York's social programs are not self-sustaining. They require a class of wealthy taxpayers to subsidize them. And when those taxpayers leave, the programs collapse.
Progressives have spent years insisting that their spending programs are "investments" that pay for themselves. Hochul just told you they do not. They are funded by rich people who can leave. And did.
The Newsom Parallel
Sound familiar? Gavin Newsom blames Trump for California gas prices while his own cap-and-trade policies add nearly $2 per gallon. His refinery regulations have driven Phillips 66 and Valero out of the state. And he acts surprised when prices climb.
Hochul is running the same play. Tax the wealthy. Regulate the businesses. Expand the programs. Watch the money leave. Then ask the money to please come back. Without changing a single thing that pushed it out the door.
Meanwhile, the Clown Car Keeps Loading
While Hochul begs millionaires to come home, New York's progressive bench is busy making sure they never do. Enter Zohran Mamdani and the socialist wing of New York politics, who have spent the last few years arguing that the rich are not taxed ENOUGH.
These are the geniuses who think the solution to a shrinking tax base is to raise taxes on whoever is left. Mamdani and his followers want rent control expansions, wealth taxes, corporate surcharges, and every other policy that makes a financial advisor in Manhattan start Googling "condos in West Palm Beach."
This is the fundamental contradiction of progressive New York. Hochul is out here begging billionaires to come back while Mamdani's crowd is standing at the state line with a clipboard full of new taxes waiting for them. One hand beckons. The other one pickpockets.
And the people who suffer? Not the politicians. Not the activists with trust funds. The working families who cannot leave. The small business owners who watched their neighborhood empty out. The teachers and firefighters whose pensions depend on a tax base that shrinks every time Albany passes another "equity" bill.
Mamdani and his followers are not fighting for the working class. They are accelerating the exodus that hollows out the working class's support system. But try telling that to someone who thinks "tax the rich" is an economic policy and not just a bumper sticker.
The Bottom Line
You do not get to chase people out of your state with taxes and regulations, then ask them to come home like nothing happened. That is not governance. That is the ex who keyed your car asking if you want to grab dinner.
Hochul said the quiet part out loud. New York's progressive model depends on wealthy people who do not want to live there anymore. And instead of fixing the model, the governor is recruiting.
Good luck with that.
Further Reading
• IRS Migration Data: State-to-State AGI Flows
• Tax Foundation: State Individual Income Tax Rates and Brackets