Florida Names NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani ‘Economic Developer of the Year’ in Times Square Campaign

There is a new billboard in Times Square, right there at Broadway and West 43rd, and I want to shake the hand of whoever approved it. The Florida Chamber of Commerce looked at New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and decided the man deserved an award. “Economic Developer of the Year.” For Florida. Because that is exactly what he is doing for the Sunshine State. He is developing Florida’s economy by torching New York’s.

The billboard says “Thanks for the jobs!” and I about spit out my coffee. That is the kind of petty, surgical, devastating mockery that mothers employ at the bus stop when somebody’s kid throws a rock and breaks their own window. Florida’s Chamber CEO Mark Wilson told Fox News Digital they wanted to thank Mamdani “for the jobs, the companies, the people that they’re pushing out of New York.” He called what Mamdani is doing “dangerous for the country.” He is being polite.

Andrewsmclain (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Here is what I know from my own eyes and my own group chat. I have watched families pack up and leave blue states for years now. The Chamber cited IRS migration data showing Florida gains about $2.4 million in net taxable income every single hour. Every hour. While New York bleeds out at $1.1 million per hour. Florida gains 551 residents a day. New York loses 115. Those are not spin numbers from a think tank. That is the IRS. The same people who take your money are the ones counting where it goes.

And here is the part that should make every parent in this country sit up straight. New York’s state budget is more than double Florida’s. New York City’s municipal budget alone is more than $8 billion higher than the entire Florida state budget. The entire state! Florida has lowered taxes over 50 times in 15 years and has record revenues pouring in. New York keeps raising taxes and keeps losing people. This is not complicated. It is a household budget. You do not charge more for a product people are already returning.

But does Mamdani’s City Hall care? A spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “By any metric, New York City’s economy under Mayor Mamdani is as strong as it’s ever been.” By any metric. I would love to know which metrics, because the IRS says people are fleeing. The Chamber says businesses are leaving. And the response from City Hall is basically, “Everything is fine, do not look behind the curtain.”

Karamccurdy (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

Meanwhile, the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America is planning a full social calendar. Their website lists an “Endorse-o-rama” forum to elect more socialists, a Starbucks strike solidarity rally, a “Tax the Rich” launch rally in Midtown, and a socialist organizing conference in Brooklyn. They are not even hiding it. They are throwing parties to celebrate the ideology that is emptying the city’s bank accounts. “Zohran alone isn’t enough,” their site says. You’re telling me. One socialist mayor is apparently not enough to finish the job. They need the whole bench.

Wilson said Florida is not trying to spike the football. He said this is about “trying to save our country from crazy.” With all due respect to Mr. Wilson, that billboard is a football spike, and it should be. When a state with a $1.8 trillion economy puts a trophy on your front lawn and says “thanks for the business,” the correct response is not a press release about how strong things are. The correct response is to stop doing what you are doing.

Dietmar Rabich (CC BY-SA 4.0) via Wikimedia Commons

But they will not. They never do. They will tax the rich until the rich are in Jacksonville, and then they will tax whoever is left and call it affordability.