New York City Hall is pushing back after Florida’s leading business organization planted a billboard in the middle of Times Square sarcastically naming Mayor Zohran Mamdani the Sunshine State’s “Economic Developer of the Year.”
The Florida Chamber of Commerce unveiled the digital advertisement Monday at Broadway and West 43rd Street. Its message to the democratic socialist mayor is gloriously economical:
“Thanks for the jobs!”
City Hall responded by insisting New York’s economy is flourishing under Mamdani.
“By any metric, New York City’s economy under Mayor Mamdani is as strong as it’s ever been,” a mayoral spokesperson said. “We look forward to continuing to grow the economy while ensuring that working-class New Yorkers are benefiting from that growth.”
The administration cited 21,700 jobs added during the past six months, 1.9% employment growth in finance and insurance, a strengthening Manhattan office market and more than $21 billion raised by New York City companies in venture capital this year.
In other words, City Hall’s answer is: Nothing to see here. Please disregard the moving vans headed south.
Florida Chamber President and CEO Mark Wilson said the billboard is part of the organization’s “Free Enterprise Florida” campaign contrasting the two states’ economic philosophies.
“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,” Wilson told Fox News Digital.
Wilson accused Mamdani of pushing New York further toward an economic model that punishes investment, employers and high earners.
“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.”
“We can choose free enterprise, which is what America was built on, or we can choose to destroy that, which is what the socialist policies do,” Wilson added.
The Chamber says its campaign is not simply a regional food fight between New York pizza and Florida grouper. Wilson described the billboard as a warning about a broader national choice between limited government and democratic socialism.
“This isn’t about spiking a football or looking at the scoreboard about Florida versus New York,” he said. “This is really about trying to save our country from crazy.”
That may be difficult to square with a billboard awarding Mamdani a trophy for helping Florida, but nobody ever said economic education could not be entertaining.
The Chamber’s case rests on a long-established migration trend that began well before Mamdani entered City Hall but could be intensified by his tax-and-spending agenda.
The most recent IRS migration data show Florida gaining approximately $20.6 billion in adjusted gross income from domestic migration between 2022 and 2023. New York lost approximately $9.9 billion during the same period.
Those annual numbers translate to roughly $2.35 million flowing into Florida every hour and approximately $1.13 million leaving New York—close to the Chamber’s advertised figures of $2.4 million gained and $1.1 million lost each hour.
Florida was also the largest destination for departing New York taxpayers. In 2022–23, New York suffered a net loss of 21,176 tax returns to Florida, according to the New York Post’s analysis of IRS data.
The IRS figures track address changes on tax returns and the income associated with those filers. They demonstrate that money and taxpayers are moving, although they cannot prove that taxes alone caused every relocation. Housing costs, retirement, weather, employment and the pandemic-era rise of remote work also contributed.
It would also be unfair to credit Mamdani personally for migration that occurred years before his mayoralty. The Chamber’s argument is forward-looking: His policies threaten to accelerate a problem New York already had.
New York’s own tax department reports that the rate of taxpayers changing their addresses to other states peaked during the pandemic and has since declined. Out-of-state address changes fell from roughly 3% in 2020 and 2021 to 1.99% in 2024. Among taxpayers earning at least $1 million, the rate dropped from 6.09% in 2020 to 2.49% in 2024.
That is useful context, but “the exodus is slower than during the lockdown catastrophe” is hardly a slogan likely to knock Florida’s billboard out of Times Square.
Mamdani has promoted higher taxes on corporations and wealthy residents to finance an expansive affordability program built around government-run grocery stores, free buses, universal childcare and rent controls.
His administration’s pied-à-terre tax proposal has also alarmed developers and owners of high-value second homes. Critics warn that extracting more revenue from wealthy residents could persuade some of the city’s most mobile taxpayers to make Florida their primary residence.
“What do people like Mayor Mamdani do?” Wilson asked. “They want to then increase taxes on the people who are left, which just further accelerates people leaving places like New York.”
Florida has no state personal income tax. Wilson said the state has cut taxes more than 50 times over 15 years while continuing to collect record revenue through economic and population growth.
“When the economy grows, tax revenues grow,” he said. “That’s how free enterprise works.”
New York City’s municipal budget, meanwhile, exceeds Florida’s entire state budget by more than $8 billion, according to the Chamber. New York State’s budget is more than twice Florida’s.
Florida has also grown into a roughly $1.8 trillion economy, which the Chamber says would rank among the largest national economies in the world if the state were an independent country.
Wilson’s next targets could include Chicago, California and Minneapolis, which he jokingly described as runners-up for the economic-development award.
“We’re going to continue to highlight what works,” he said.
