Scott Singer, the former Republican mayor of Boca Raton, has a stark warning for New York City: stop the tax-and-spend madness, or watch your wealthiest residents pack their bags for good.
He didn’t need a crystal ball to see the disaster unfolding. “When you elect a Democratic socialist with far-left ideas intent on taxing, taxing, taxing,” Singer explains, “you’re going to cause more capital to flee.”
New York’s new mayor, Zohran Mamdani, has already sparked fury with his “tax the rich” crusade. Billionaire Ken Griffin, CEO of Citadel, responded by doubling down on his Florida investments—a direct rebuke to the socialist agenda.
Singer, now a Republican congressional candidate in Florida’s 25th District, predicted this exodus months ago. He says it’s only the beginning. "People have gotten wise," he warns. "Crazy statements like taxing just because you can—and piling surtaxes on already crushing rates—won’t work. People will keep moving."
Mamdani recently cheered a plan to slap extra taxes on luxury second homes owned by the ultra-wealthy, aiming to rake in $500 million annually. Singer is incredulous. “A part-time resident in New York already pays tons of property taxes—rates Mamdani wanted to hike 11% more. They use zero services. Why would they stay?”
The result, Singer argues, is self-destructive: “Drive more capital away, depress property values, slash job opportunities.” The real solution? “Create job growth, lower taxes, shrink government, and let free markets attract people to attractive places.”
Mamdani dismisses the warnings as “imagined.” He points to his time as a state legislator, when similar threats of a millionaire exodus proved hollow—the number of millionaires actually rose after a tax hike. “We were told the same thing then,” he says. “And yet we have more millionaires today.”
But numbers tell a different story. New York City’s population dropped by 12,000 in 2025, the year before Mamdani took office—a sharp reversal from post-pandemic surges of 70,000 and 163,000 in 2023 and 2024, driven mostly by immigration and asylum seekers.
The debate isn’t theoretical. It’s a high-stakes clash between two visions: one that taxes the rich and bets they’ll stay, another that insists they’ll flee—and take the city’s economic future with them.
