New York is in a tight spot as its leaders are trying to keep billionaires from leaving New York City over leftist Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s (D) policies.
If wealthy residents leave en masse, the city will face a huge loss of money, businesses, and thousands of jobs, the New York Post reported Friday.
“The splashy one-two punch of Citadel CEO Ken Griffin and Apollo Global Management honcho Marc Rowan pledging to expand outside New York City has been coupled with a silent wave of businesses ‘quiet quitting’ the city over its hostile environment, insiders told the Post,” the outlet said, noting that Medallion Financial Corp. founder Andrew Murstein has launched a campaign called Operation Boomerang to bring the wealthy back to the area.
City Hall officials are also aware of the situation, and one city business leader told the Post officials are trying to tone down Mamdani’s rhetoric.
“They’re in a pickle because he’s hearing all the business leaders are looking for exit strategies now and Mamdani needs money and needs to keep his base happy. This might be an inflection point because NYC is already a welfare state supported by very few people at the top who can leave,” the unnamed individual explained.
On Tax Day, Mamdani announced he was targeting high-value properties and reminded people of the platform he ran on during his campaign, according to Breitbart News.
“When I ran for mayor, I said I was going to tax the rich. Well, today, we’re taxing the rich. I’m thrilled to announce we’ve secured a pied-à-terre tax, the first in New York’s history. This is an annual fee on luxury properties worth more than $5 million whose owners do not live full time in the city, like for this penthouse, which hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin bought for $238 million,” he said.
Griffin later said he halted his city expansion after Mamdani made the announcement about the tax plan, stating, “When we moved from Chicago, there was a debate between New York and Miami; it’s unquestionably true that we made the right choice.”
“I’ll leave it at that. And now, what the Mayor of New York has made clear to my partners, and principally, my New York partners, is that we need to double-down on our bet in Miami because we want to be in a state that embraces business, that embraces education, that embraces personal freedom and liberty, and that embraces the opportunity for people to live the American dream and a dream of earned success, not a dream of redistributive handouts that leave people dependent on government for their lives,” he added.
In the past, Mamdani has condemned the rich and opposed the capitalist system, although his campaign was reportedly fueled by leftist billionaire George Soros.
The socialist mayor has also said he needs higher taxes on wealthier white people to boost his “Black and Brown” political machine of immigrants and minorities, according to Breitbart News.
“Today’s true cost of living measure confirms that the affordability crisis touches every corner of our city,” he stated, adding, “We know that these effects are not applied evenly: So often it is black and brown New Yorkers who are hit the hardest. This Preliminary Racial Equity Plan is the first in developing a whole-of-government approach to tackling that reality… to solve decades of neglect and discrimination.”
Meanwhile on the west coast, the leftist mayor of Seattle, Washington, apparently does not care that millionaires are fleeing the state due to a tax that is set to place significant financial pressure on them, which many fear will hurt large and small business owners.
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