Staff Reports
New research from the Citizens Budget Committee makes a blunt point: millionaires are leaving New York faster than almost anywhere else. That is not a small shift. It matters for city budgets, for who gets to pay the bills, and for the left-wing politicians who promised big, expensive programs paid for by the wealthy.
New report shows millionaire exodus
The report finds New York’s share of the nation’s millionaires dropped sharply, from about 12.7% down to roughly 8.7%. In recent years, the richest households have been the fastest to go. The state lost billions in taxable income to nearby counties and warm-weather havens, draining money that once funded schools, transit, and public safety. Call it the tax flight the politicians keep pretending won’t happen.
DSA and Mayor Mamdani face a terrible choice
Mayor Zohran Mamdani and the Democratic Socialists of America have built their brand on squeezing the rich — higher rates on millionaires, tax hikes on capital gains and inheritances, and the rest. But when you already tax at near-top national levels, the math bites back. Studies cited by the report and other research show top earners and top talent respond to tax changes by moving away, not by staying and paying up. That leaves a political movement that wants services it can’t realistically afford without the people it blames.
Political calculation meets economic reality
Some on the left cheer when millionaires leave because it makes elections easier. Fine — until the city runs out of money and services fall apart for everyone else. Political purity is cheaper when someone else is keeping the lights on. The old “Curley effect” shows how driving away wealth can lock in power for a while, but it doesn’t keep subways running or make hospitals whole. Eventually the bills come due.
Practical choices, not ideological fantasies
If New York wants to stop hollowing itself out, it needs policies that keep earners and talent in town — lower rates, simpler rules, and incentives for growth — not more punitive taxes that push people away. The Citizens Budget Committee report is a warning, plain and loud: you can have radical slogans or sustainable cities, but you can’t have both. Mayor Mamdani and the DSA can keep promising socialism in a single city, but any plan that banks on a captive wealthy class ignores the one thing all politicians forget — people can move.
