New figures from the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance shows that the millionaire exodus from the Empire State that began during the Covid-19 pandemic did not let up in 2021.
The number of those earning more than $25 million that fled the state in 2021 is 1,453, just 520 less than the amount that left at the height of lockdowns and intense social distancing.
Despite the apparent shortfall, there still are around 80,000 millionaire taxpayers in New York, a number that’s up from the 70,000 or so that were there in 2020. The top one percent of earners in New York account for close to half of the state’s income tax revenue.
However more than eight percent of New York’s uber-wealthy, those making above $25 million per year, left in 2021. The new data comes as woke states such as New York and California see a mass exodus amid surging house prices and raging crime.
The most likely destination for fleeing New Yorkers remain New Jersey, Florida and Connecticut. In 2020, Queens-native billionaire Carl Icahn confirmed he left his hometown for Florida due to taxation reasons.
New York-born billionaire activist Carl Icahn left his hometown in 2020 due to tax reasons
The uber-wealthy fled New York and headed to the Sunshine State primarily
Other billionaires who have fled New York in recent years include Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, whose net worth is $7.3 billion
Other billionaires who have fled in recent years include Carolina Panthers owner David Tepper and hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones, whose net worth is $7.3 billion. Both left the Big Apple behind in recent years for the Palm Beach area citing tax reasons.
The majority of millionaires who have moved are between the ages of 45 and 64, those between the age of 65 and 84 were most likely to head to Florida.
‘New York, and New York City in particular, attract a lot of ambitious people who come to make their fortunes,’ James Parrott, the director of economic and fiscal policies at the New School told the New York Times.
‘Those who do well stay until they’re further along, not necessarily retirement age but when they’ve reached some level of success and have more options in life,’ Parrott continued.
According to Brooklyn-based moving company Piece of Cake, the most popular destinations for New Yorkers in New Jersey is Jersey City, a short hop from Manhattan across the Hudson River.
A January study from the Fiscal Policy Institute found that the majority of those moving to New Jersey are considered ‘middle class’ and are moving to save money on mortgages.
Between 2019 and 2020, New York City lost six percent of those earning between $150,000 and $750,000.
Stephen Ross, 82, whose net worth is around $12billion, has said that people in the Northeast are looking for warmer climates a lot earlier than retirement and corporate spaces in the Sunshine State are thriving because of it
!['It's tax issues, and there's the security issues. There's just the ease of living [in the South],' Ross said. Crime rates are up 2.6 percent compared to the same time last year in the Big Apple, with robbery and felony assault up 6.3 and 12.2 percent, respectively](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2023/02/23/21/67521211-11732971-_It_s_tax_issues_and_there_s_the_security_issues_There_s_just_th-a-3_1677187212594.jpg)
‘It’s tax issues, and there’s the security issues. There’s just the ease of living [in the South],’ Ross said. Crime rates are up 2.6 percent compared to the same time last year in the Big Apple, with robbery and felony assault up 6.3 and 12.2 percent, respectively
Billionaire real estate developer Stephen Ross, the mastermind behind the Hudson Yards construction project on the Westside of Manhattan, told Bloomberg this month that his company is expanding its operations in Florida due to the migration.
‘People are looking from the Northeast and relocating for jobs — not retirement — and companies are looking [for offices],’ Ross told the network. ‘It’s tax issues, and there’s the security issues. There’s just the ease of living.’
Ross, 82, who owns the Miami Dolphins, said that the New York continues to face ‘challenges’ but will grow in other ways. Ross’s company plans to build a casino in the Hudson Yards section of the city. ‘
‘It’s changing, it’s getting younger, the older people are moving out, the wealthier people are moving out,’ Ross added.
Well-known New York billionaire Carl Icahn moved to Sunny Isles, Florida, in 2020. Famously, the Sunshine State does not have a state income tax.
The New York Post reported that Icahn had become ‘weary’ of the city. He went so far as to pay staff who wanted to relocate with him a $50,000 benefit.
After a year of rising crime and continued inflation, many Americans chose to exit the nation’s three biggest cities to head down south
Rent prices in Manhattan reached unfathomable new heights in 2022, forcing many concrete-jungle residents to hand over egregious sums each month for less than lavish digs
New York and California have each lost more than half a million people since 2020
In December, statistics reviewed by EJ McMahon of the Empire Center for Public Policy ramped up the ongoing debate about New York’s relative tax unfriendly status, particularly as it pertains to high-income individuals.
McMahon claimed the data showed a 1.3 percent decline in the number of New Yorkers with adjusted gross annual income of more than $1 million.
The precise figure fell from 55,100 to 54,370 – 730 individuals, while the national number climbed from 554,340 to 608,549 – a nearly 10 percent jump.
Taxes are likely not the only reason wealthy New Yorkers fled the empire state during COVID, but it is a formidable one and not something that should be ignored by the state government, said McMahon.
‘It’s preposterous to deny that it isn’t one of the key determinants,’ he told the Union Sun & Journal. ‘And it’s the variable that the state government controls.’
In 2010, he said, New York state had 12.7 percent of the nation’s income millionaires.
That was the year elected officials enacted the infamous millionaire’s tax, which was supposed to be a temporary higher tax rate on those making more than one million dollars.
Those taxes only went up during the years when Andrew Cuomo governed the state, and have not been lowered since his administration came to an abrupt end driven by a report about Cuomo’s pattern of sexually harassing the women in his orbit.
By 2019, the state’s share of million-dollar earners had dipped below 10 percent and fell again in 2020 to 8.9 percent.
One Democratic leader, however, who says he is trying to keep the country’s wealthy in New York, is Mayor Eric Adams
One Democratic leader, however, who says he is trying to keep the country’s wealthy in New York, is Mayor Eric Adams.
At a 2022 meeting of corporate leaders, Adams said he was tired of the ‘tax the rich’ policies favored by the progressive wing of his party.
‘It blows my mind when I hear, ‘So what if they leave?’ No, you leave!’ he thundered. ‘I want my high income earners right here.’
Adams has not, at this time, proposed a plan to lower taxes on wealthy – or any – New Yorkers.
According to new Census Bureau data, New York experienced the largest population decline of any US state this year – losing 0.9 percent of its residents.
In January of 2020, New York State introduced sweeping criminal justice legislation that eliminated cash bail for the majority of misdemeanors and nonviolent felonies, including robberies.
New York, where the average rent is now more than $5,200 a month, lost more residents than any other state between April 1, 2020 and July 1, 2021, many of whom fled a staunch set of pandemic restrictions and high taxes for friendlier business environments, according to MarketWatch.
The New York market – which includes parts of Long Island and northern New Jersey – saw a dip from a nearly 60 percent move-in rate just three years ago in 2019
Crime in Manhattan surged 23.5 percent in 2022 as robberies, rapes and felony assaults all climbed – though murders and shootings both decreased by double digits.
Grand larceny – or thefts of more than $1,000 – spiked by more than 60 percent in New York City this year.
The issue has become so significant that Mayor Eric Adams held a meeting with business leaders at Gracie Mansion earlier this month to address it – though a solution remains far from reachable as the city heads into the New Year.
Since April of 2020, New York has, on net, lost half a million people. Its current population was recorded as 19,677,151, making it the fourth most populous state after California, Texas and Florida.
In California, where once-a-year massive wildfires and treacherous mudslides threaten homes, the population has also dipped by slightly more than 508,000 since 2020.
Deputy director of external affairs at the California Department of Finance, H.D. Palmer, told the Sacramento Bee that the shrinking population of the Golden State is a reflection of its ongoing housing affordability crisis.
‘If you talk to demographers, they’ll say that one of the factors is the cost of housing. And that’s continued to be a challenging issue for the state,’ he said.
According to the Bee, in Sacramento – where the median household income in 2021 was $71,047 – it requires a household salary of around $145,000 to afford the median-priced house in the region.
