New Yorks Democratic leadership is learning the hard way that when you punish success, success packs up and leaves.
According to The Blaze, Governor Kathy Hochul all but conceded this reality during a Politico New York Agenda: Albany Summit on March 11, where she acknowledged that the states fiscal house of cards depends heavily on the very high earners her party so often vilifies.
I need people who are high net worth to support the generous social programs that we want to have in our state, right? Now there are some patriotic millionaires who stepped up. Okay, cut me the checks. But maybe the first step should be go down to Palm Beach and see who you can bring back home, because our tax base has been eroded, she said.
It was a rare moment of candor from a Democratic governor who has presided over a steady outflow of residents and capital to lower-tax, freer states.
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck was stunned by Hochuls open admission that New Yorks political class views the wealthy less as citizens and more as walking revenue streams. Do you hear what she's saying there? I need people of high net worth because I need their money to do stuff in the state, he scoffs, underscoring the transactional, almost feudal attitude embedded in her remarks. For those who believe in limited government and individual liberty, the governors plea sounded less like leadership and more like a shakedown.
Beck went on to explain that this mindset is precisely why he has resisted relocating permanently to Idaho, despite owning a vacation home there. When I went to speak to some of the Republicans up in the House and the Senate in Idaho a Republican came up to me and said We hope you [move here], because we want to add you to the tax base, he recounts. And I said, You know what? You've guaranteed that I will never move to Idaho. Even in a red state, he suggests, some politicians cannot resist seeing productive citizens as nothing more than a source of government funding.
For former New Yorkers who have already escaped, the incentives to return are virtually nonexistent. If you live in the city, you're already taking an additional 12%, plus the state gets their [cut] as well, plus the federal government, says Glenn, so, you know, if you're making good money, you get to keep, like, I don't know, 40% of it. Who doesn't want to live like that? he asks sarcastically, capturing the absurdity of a tax regime that punishes achievement while demanding gratitude.
Hochuls latest scheme only reinforces the message that success is unwelcome unless it can be milked. Beck notes that the governors desperate rhetoric is unlikely to lure anyone back, and neither will her proposal for an annual tax surcharge on luxury second homes in New York City valued at $5 million or more.
Announced on April 15, the surcharge would be layered on top of already steep property taxes and is pitched as a way to make ultra-wealthy non-residents who do not pay city or state income taxes "contribute their fair share" to city services. The revenue is intended to help New York Citys openly socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D) close a budget gap created by years of progressive spending and mismanagement.
Beck frames the decision facing high earners in stark, common-sense terms that highlight the competitive advantage of red states. The choice is simple, says Glenn: Pay none of that in Texas or Florida or Tennessee," or go back [to New York] and pay all of that and then pay an extra if you have something that [Kathy Hochul] thinks is too much. I'm so tempted to go back to New York right now. I'm like, I don't know, should I live in Florida or should I maybe go back to New York City and help them build that supermarket? he mocks, making clear that the supposed fair share rhetoric is driving prosperity away, not drawing it in.
As New York doubles down on high taxes and class warfare, states like Texas, Florida, and Tennessee continue to attract families, entrepreneurs, and retirees who prefer to keep more of what they earn and live under governments that respect, rather than resent, their success. Hochuls own wordspleading for patriotic millionaires to cut me the checks while she contemplates new surchargesillustrate a deeper problem: a political culture that treats prosperity as a problem to be solved instead of a blessing to be encouraged.
For Americans who still believe in the dignity of work, the rewards of risk-taking, and the virtues of limited government, the real vote is cast not just at the ballot box, but with a moving truck headed south.
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