Ex-Republican Mayor Scott Singer Warns NYC Business Exodus to Florida Will Continue Under Mamdani

The former Republican mayor of Boca Raton warned that business owners and job creators will keep fleeing New York City for red states like Florida under Mayor Zohran Mamdani's economic and tax policies.

"I didn't have to be a soothsayer to know that when you elect a Democrat socialist with far left ideas that are just intent on taxing, taxing, taxing and have plans that have no hope of passing, you're going to cause more capital to flee," Scott Singer, who is running for Congress as a Republican in Florida's 25th District, told Fox News.

Mamdani has drawn heavy criticism for his "tax the rich" platform since taking office, including from Citadel CEO and billionaire Ken Griffin. Griffin recently pledged to boost his investments in Florida after the new socialist mayor imposed taxes on the wealthy.

Singer, who predicted a business exodus from New York City to Florida in an October interview with Fox News Digital, said the "exodus is going to continue naturally."

"People have already gotten wise and crazy statements like taxing people just because we can, and putting surtaxes on what are already the highest tax rates in the country, and thinking people aren't going to move is a bad idea," Singer said. "It's not going to work, and people are going to continue to move."

Mamdani recently backed a proposal to tax luxury second homes owned by the ultra-wealthy, which could generate at least $500 million a year.

"It makes no sense from a policy standpoint," Singer said. "A part-time resident in New York City who's already paying tons of property taxes at a rate that Mamdani wanted to increase, what, 11% more? They're not using any services. So why would people continue to invest there? All they're going to do is drive more capital away, depress values, and create fewer job opportunities."

Singer said the right approach is "creating job growth, lowering taxes, shrinking government and allowing the free market to continue to attract jobs to attractive places."

Fox News Digital contacted Mamdani’s office for comment.

Mamdani claimed last month that warnings of the city's wealthiest residents leaving over high taxes are "imagined."

"For all of the discussion of the imagined exodus that would take place were we to tax the wealthiest New Yorkers by the appropriate amount — I say imagined because before I was a mayor I was a state legislator, and I was part of an effort to increase taxes on millionaires at that time — we were told the same thing then — and what we find now is that we have more millionaires today than we did at that time even after having passed that tax," Mamdani said.

New York City lost high earners and billions in income, with migrants reversing population decline, according to a report. The city's population fell in 2025, the year before Mamdani took office, for a net loss of about 12,000 people. That drop came after post-pandemic gains of 70,000 in 2023 and 163,000 in 2024, driven largely by increased immigration including asylum seekers, per an April 20 report from the Citizens Budget Commission.