New York has lost 10 billionaires in the last four years — three of whom fled to Florida — leaving tax coffers lighter by tens of millions of dollars annually.
This year 62 New York-based billionaires appeared on the Forbes 400 list of the wealthiest Americans, compared to 72 in 2019 and 65 last year.
Investor and Washington Commanders owner Josh Harris, whose net worth was valued at $5.7 billion last year, has grown his fortune to $6.9 billion — but he packed his bags for Florida.
Other billionaires who have relocated from Gotham to the Sunshine State in the last four years include hedge funder Daniel Och — whose net worth now stands at $3.6 billion — and investor Carl Icahn, who’s worth $6.9 billion.
“You have this incredibly high rate imposed on all of the income of the highest earners [in New York], and living just about anywhere else will substantially reduce your tax burden. Going to Florida will obviously eliminate your individual tax burden, and many of these billionaires clearly have that flexibility,” the National Tax Foundation’s vice president, Jared Walczak, explained.
New York relies on the top 1% of taxpayers to pay for 42% of its tax receipts, and billionaires’ incomes are taxed at the state’s highest rate — a staggering 14.8%, according to Walczak.
Although it’s impossible to quantify the exact loss in state taxes from billionaires’ fleeing without access to private income documents, “If you had someone who was earning $100 million [a year] in New York suddenly move to Florida, that’s something like a $11 million-a-year hit per year recurring to the state,” said Ken Girardin, the research director for the Albany-based think tank, Empire Center for Public Policy.
“And that’s just from one person leaving,” Girardin pointed out.
The magnate exodus poses a “significant” threat to government services.
“New York’s reliance on high earners to fund government services means if those high earners stop being created or start moving away, the state’s ability to fund services can be quickly reduced,” said Girardin.
“The state’s ability to continually bail out the MTA and to fund New York’s costly public schools both rely on the state continuing to get a big chunk of its taxes from a small group of earners,” he continued.
Former Forbes 400 billionaires from the Empire State who fell off the list entirely this year were private equity tycoon Scott Shleifer; William and Aerin Lauders of Estee Lauder cosmetics, and investment banker David Gottesman, who died in September 2022.
The youngest tycoon to make the cut is New Yorker Josh Kushner, 38, who founded and runs the venture capitalist firm Thrive Capital, which has backed notable startups including Instagram, Spotify, and Slack in the last decade.
Kushner — whose net worth is now $3.6 billion — is the son of disgraced real estate mogul Charles Kushner, who served prison time for illegal campaign contributions, tax evasion, and witness tampering before being pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020.
Josh is the brother of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, and his former senior White House adviser.
The collective net worth of the 62 New York-based billionaires in this year’s Forbes roundup is $562.3 billion.
Michael Bloomberg is the eighth richest American and the wealthiest New Yorker, with a net worth of $96.3 billion.