Florida is thanking New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani for sending jobs, companies, wealth, and residents south.
The Florida Chamber of Commerce delivered [1] that message in unmistakable fashion with a massive Times Square billboard declaring, “Thanks for the jobs!”
Located at Broadway and West 43rd Street, the digital advertisement names Mamdani Florida’s “Economic Developer of the Year.”
It is a sharp jab at progressive leadership and a public celebration of the economic migration enriching the Sunshine State.
The campaign reflects a broader national battle between free enterprise and growing government control.
Florida leaders argue that lower taxes, lighter regulation, and personal liberty encourage investment, while socialist experiments drive productive citizens toward the exits.
Florida Chamber of Commerce CEO Mark Wilson said the organization wants Americans to recognize what is happening in plain sight.
New York keeps squeezing businesses and taxpayers, while Florida welcomes them and enjoys the economic rewards.
Wilson described Mamdani’s agenda as dangerous for New York and harmful to the country.
His concern is that Democratic socialist policies attack the economic freedoms that allowed generations of Americans to build businesses, create jobs, and pursue prosperity.
The Chamber says Florida gains approximately $2.4 million in net taxable income every hour, based on Internal Revenue Service migration data.
New York, by comparison, loses about $1.1 million in taxable income during that same period.
Population figures tell a similar story, according to the organization.
Florida gains a net 551 residents each day, while New York loses approximately 115, giving the Sunshine State a steady stream of workers, consumers, entrepreneurs, and tax revenue.
“What do people like Mayor Mamdani do? They want to then increase taxes on the people who are left, which just further accelerates people leaving places like New York,” Wilson explained.
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That cycle is hardly complicated, despite the left’s best efforts to dress it up in academic jargon.
Higher taxes push people away, the tax base shrinks, government demands more money, and the remaining residents receive another bill for progressive mismanagement.
Florida has taken the opposite approach, reducing taxes more than 50 times during the past 15 years while collecting record revenue.
Economic growth has expanded the state’s tax base without relying on the familiar blue state ritual of punishing success.
The Chamber also highlighted the enormous difference in government spending between the two states.
New York’s state budget is more than twice the size of Florida’s, while New York City’s municipal budget alone exceeds Florida’s entire state budget by more than $8 billion.
Those numbers raise an obvious question about what New Yorkers are receiving for all that spending.
Florida is building a $1.8 trillion economy while attracting wealth and residents, yet New York continues demanding more from a population already looking for escape routes.
City Hall rejected the Chamber’s argument and claimed New York City’s economy under Mamdani remains historically strong.
The administration also said it intends to continue growing the economy while ensuring that workers benefit, the usual promise accompanying another progressive expansion of government.
Wilson insisted the billboard is not about cheering for New York’s decline.
He said Florida wants other states to succeed, but that success requires rejecting socialism and returning to the principles of freedom, competition, and private enterprise.
The Chamber views the states as competitors in a national contest of ideas.
Florida’s results offer a powerful scorecard, while New York provides a warning about what happens when politicians treat businesses and affluent residents like permanent sources of government cash.
Wilson said the campaign could eventually expand beyond Manhattan, with Chicago, California, and Minneapolis among the possible future targets.
Each has become associated with progressive governance, rising burdens, and policies that give residents and employers fresh reasons to consider Florida.
The campaign arrives as the United States celebrates 250 years of independence and debates which economic direction it will follow.
Florida’s message is refreshingly direct: freedom and enterprise create opportunity, while socialism creates moving trucks headed south.