We have all seen and felt the mass exodus from New York to Florida here in Sarasota. We need to plan for this migration to continue and magnify. 

The exodus began well before the pandemic due to the high tax and negative business environment in New York. New York was taking its economy for granted. This exodus is now being magnified by COVID-19. With draconian shut-down measures that are not proving effective, the state is now not just driving the wealthy out, they are driving out their young people too. 

The New York flight to Florida due to taxes and business environment is not an anomaly. California has begun to see their fair share of flight to Texas, with one of the most prominent businessmen in the world, Elon Musk, picking up Tesla and his family and moving for this very reason. It is a sign in this now transitory economy, taxpayers do not have to stay where they are and get abused by government.

When I picked up The Wall Street Journal this week, I was stunned to see New York contemplating another income tax increase on those who make over a million. Almost a 2% increase is on the table. On top of that, some politicians are trying to make the income tax increase retroactive. Yes, you read that correctly, a retroactive income tax increase.

According to the article, labor unions in New York are advocating for the increase and dismiss any notion that this will drive investment out. Clearly, they have not been to Florida recently.

Ironically, the day prior to the New York tax increase article, The Wall Street Journal ran a real estate story about a wealthy private equity manager from New York who bought a penthouse in a Miami condominium for $33 million. Clearly, this is a problem for New York.

How dangerous is ignoring this problem? According to the article, about $50 billion in New York income taxes is collected from just 188,000 filers. By my back of the napkin math, the state of New York loses on average, well over a quarter of a million dollars in taxes for every one of these taxpayers that flees. Will a tax increase be worth it to avoid the $8 billion in cuts that the article claims is the alternative to the tax raise? The tax increase will be the easy way out, but likely the most damaging.

New York’s self-inflicted problem will affect Florida no matter what. We must prepare ourselves by planning for infrastructure, growth, and be mindful of the affordable housing problem being exacerbated. We will have an opportunity to do that planning in the upcoming two years. We will be planning for the renewal of our infrastructure surtax, the extra penny in sales tax we pay when we buy something taxable. 

The beauty of this tax is that over 30% of it is paid by tourists, lifting the burden from residents. It has given us roads, parks, amenities, and updated schools. Every person that moves here also pays this tax.

New Yorkers and others from mismanaged high tax states are coming. We cannot, and should not, try to stop them, we need to spend our energy on planning for them. The community needs to constructively begin to think about our infrastructure and needs for the next 15 years, because they are coming whether we build the infrastructure or not.         

Christine Robinson is executive director of The Argus Foundation.