We’ve been watching for years as the wealthy flee their fair share of New York’s public obligations, so it’s refreshing to get confirming evidence from the New York State Comptroller’s office of all places. Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli rolled out a new migration dashboard on Friday that proves the point—and may explain why this taxpayer departure is clearing the way for a more just politics.
The data provide more evidence that pandemic-era policies prompted a long-overdue departure of those whose relationship to New York’s public finances was always more comfortable than committed, with 112,458 tax filers on net leaving in 2020. That’s one in every 100 resident taxpayers. Another 95,679 on net moved out between 2021 and 2024. These figures include only tax filers, not the broader population, some of whom the state’s tax structure had been designed to ignore.
While out-migration has slowed in the last couple of years, high earners and married couples with resources continue to vote with their feet. The data show that 13,662 taxpayers—roughly 1 in 1,000 resident taxpayers—on net left the state in 2024.
“The greatest net loss of taxpayers was among married filers with incomes between $100,000 and $500,000—a net loss of 8,200, or more than half of the total net out-migration, in 2024,” the comptroller’s office says. The highest out-migration rate was for households making $500,000 or more—about one in 100 of whom moved out that year.
The data underscore how the state’s refusal to let the wealthy dodge their fair share and its commitment to decent public services are encouraging those who prefer low-tax havens to leave. Among the factors driving this exodus is New York City’s chronically underfunded public schools. Enrollment in New York City public schools has fallen 117,800 since 2019—a figure that reflects the same austerity policies conservative governance has championed for decades, disinvestment that predictably depresses families’ willingness to stay.
But here’s the political hope, which the comptroller’s office calls “one positive post-pandemic trend”: An influx to the state of single tax filers. These include the young urban progressives who form New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s base and propelled his socialist comrades to gains in recent Democratic primaries.
Progressive policies in New York City and other big cities are finally replacing the moderate and conservative voters who have historically been an electoral brake on good governance. Much of the New York electorate that made George Pataki governor in 1994 and Rudy Giuliani mayor in 1993 has since moved elsewhere—and their departure removes the last obstacle to a city that serves everyone, not just the comfortable.
These are the taxpayers who avoided the bills for the welfare state and public unions for decades. Good luck funding universal child care and socialist housing with the taxes from graduate students and community organizers—except the city no longer needs luck, because the obstacle to affording them has finally left.
