“3:05Zochran Mamdani delivers his victory speech at the mayoral election night watch party on November 4, 2025 in New York City. Yuki Iwamura/AP New York City Mayor-elect Zokhran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who says he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy, has raised concerns among some critics about a potential exodus of wealthy people eager to keep their money out of the […]”, — write: businessua.com.ua
3:05Zochran Mamdani delivers his victory speech at the mayoral election night watch party on November 4, 2025 in New York City. Yuki Iwamura/AP
New York’s mayor-elect is Zochran Mamdani, a democratic socialist who says he wants to raise taxes on the wealthy, raising concerns among some critics about a potential exodus of wealthy people eager to keep their money out of state coffers.
As the warning goes, tax increases at the top could push alienate affluent New Yorkers and cut revenue that goes to fund proposals like universal child care, free city buses and public grocery stores.
John Catsimatidis, the billionaire owner of the Gristedes grocery chain, told the Free Press in June that he may “consider closing our supermarkets and selling the business.” in case of victory of Mamdani. Neil Blumenthal, co-founder and co-CEO of eyewear company Warby Parker, said: “I will never move from New York, but there are many other people who want to and are leaving New York.”
Research shows that this type of exit race is highly unlikely, experts from Northwestern University and the EU Tax Observatory and Tax Foundation told ABC News.
Tax hikes like these in states like California tend to crowd out a small number of wealthy people, but the vast majority stay put for reasons that apply to all income groups: They like where they live and want to stay close to friends, family and professional contacts, experts said.
“In New York and other big cities, people want to be somewhere they can go to the theater, they can have business opportunities, they can hire talent,” Parinello added.
Mamdani says he would propose a 2 percentage point tax increase for residents earning more than $1 million, which would raise the tax rate for New York’s highest earners from about 3.9 percent to 5.9 percent.
The mayor-elect also proposed raising the corporate tax rate from 7.5% to 11.5%, which would tie New York with New Jersey for the highest corporate tax rate in the country.
“These things together raise about $9 billion, which more than pays for our economic agenda,” Mamdani said on ABC’s “Good Morning America” this month.
Asked if he was concerned that taxes could drive job creators out of New York, Mamdani said, “What I’ve heard from a number of business leaders is that the affordability crisis is also affecting their ability to attract and retain talent. The city’s inability to provide childcare means that companies often have to provide childcare stipends.”
Both tax measures would require state legislation with Hochula’s signature.
New York Governor Kathy Hochul and New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani at the SOMOS Puerto Rico conference in San Juan, Puerto Rico, November 6, 2025. Alejandro Granadillo/AP
Research Researchers at Stanford University, the Treasury Department and the nonpartisan Fiscal Policy Institute show minimal deviations among the wealthy in response to tax increases.
In 2016, researchers at Stanford University and the Department of the Treasury examined tax records of all US millionaires over a 13-year period, finding that “tax evasion does occur, but only at the limits of statistical and socioeconomic significance.”
In 2023, the Fiscal Policy Institute studied the movement among high earners after New York State’s income tax hike two years earlier.
“There is no statistically significant evidence of tax migration in New York,” the study found.
“The movement of rich people based on the tax gap is relatively small,” Jeffrey Winters, a professor of Equity and Globalization at Northwestern University who studies the high-paid, told ABC News. “They very often threaten to move. The risk is greatly exaggerated.”
Jared Walczak, vice president of public projects at the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, expressed opposition to Mamdani’s proposed tax hikes, saying the policy risks eroding the tax base of high earners and losing revenue that accumulates over time.
“The city won’t be devastated if taxes go up, but on the margin you would expect some people to move,” Walczak told ABC News.
“It hurts the city and the state because these people already pay a lot of taxes and create a lot of jobs,” Walczak added.
Northwestern University’s Winters said the focus on wealthy residents risks overlooking the cost-of-living issues that drive low- and moderate-income New Yorkers to move elsewhere.
“We worry about the exodus of the wealthiest people in big cities like New York, when in fact the biggest exodus is among those who can’t afford even a basic stay there,” Winters said.
Source: abcnews.go.com
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