Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants New York's job creators to know the door is open, and the tax bill is lower. His office issued an explicit invitation to businesses eyeing the exits after New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani singled out billionaire hedge fund CEO Ken Griffin in a social-media video promoting a new tax on high-end property owners.
Abbott spokesman Andrew Mahaleris told the New York Post:
"Governor Abbott is proud to welcome businesses and job creators from across the country to Texas, where we have no state income tax, reasonable regulations, and a pro-growth environment that encourages free enterprise to flourish."
Mahaleris did not stop there. He drew a direct line between Mamdani's rhetoric and the accelerating corporate migration south.
"Punitive policies that target successful job-creating entrepreneurs only accelerate the trend of companies choosing Texas."
The numbers back him up. Data from the nonprofit Partnership for New York City show Texas now employs 519,000 financial-sector workers, topping New York's 507,000. JPMorgan Chase alone has more employees in Texas than in New York. For a city that built its identity on Wall Street, those figures represent a slow-motion economic earthquake.
The latest provocation came when Mamdani used Griffin's $238 million Midtown penthouse as the backdrop for one of his trademark social-media videos, pitching a new pied-a-terre tax aimed at wealthy property owners. Griffin called the stunt "creepy." His office did not respond to the Post's request for comment.
The mayor's approach fits a pattern. Since taking office, Mamdani has leaned hard into a "Tax the Rich" agenda that has rattled the financial community and drawn warnings from figures across the political spectrum.
Last week, both Griffin and Apollo Global Management leader Marc Rowan threatened to expand operations outside New York City. Insiders told the Post that businesses had been "quiet quitting" the city, a phrase that should alarm every New Yorker who depends on the tax revenue those firms generate.
The potential loss of Wall Street business could deal a major blow to New York City's finances. A GOP source with ties to New York said people are already looking at real estate in Dallas and Miami.
The backlash is not coming only from Republicans. Former Democratic Gov. David Paterson unloaded on Mamdani during an appearance on WABC radio's "The Cats Roundtable," hosted by John Catsimatidis. Paterson on Sunday told the Post bluntly:
"[Mamdani] comes from a household of poor judgment."
Paterson said he assembled a bipartisan list, 13 Democrats and six Republicans, willing to sit down and discuss where the city is headed. His concern was not abstract. He described the stakes in personal terms:
"I made a list of people I know, 13 of them were Democrats and six were Republicans, who would sit down and just have a conversation about where this city is going and not to let it get destroyed by the leadership and also not to let it falter, because the resources that have kept the city alive are thinking about moving to other places."
The former governor reserved some of his sharpest words for the ideology behind Mamdani's approach. He described the mayor's posture toward wealth creators as rooted in resentment rather than governance.
"They're jealous and envious of what [other people] have. That is a terrible way to live your life."
Paterson also expressed sympathy for Griffin directly, calling Mamdani's video appearance outside the CEO's home an act of self-humiliation:
"I certainly understand how Ken Griffin feels... Mamdani taking pictures and basically humiliating himself right in front of Mr. Griffin's home."
And he warned that the anti-wealth rhetoric carries real consequences, not for the billionaires, who can leave, but for the city that needs them to stay:
"It's a reflection of the lack of appreciation for what this city is about and what people had to do to make it that way.... Making comments that no one should ever be a billionaire, all that does is foment anger, and the people who it's directed at now are threatening to protect themselves by leaving. I'm hoping they won't do that."
Abbott has not been shy about leveraging New York's political dysfunction. During the worst of the country's border crisis, the governor bused more than 100,000 migrants to the Big Apple and other sanctuary cities, forcing Democratic leaders to confront the consequences of their own immigration policies. That move alone reshaped the national debate on border security and Texas's willingness to act where Washington would not.
Now Abbott is applying the same competitive pressure on economic policy. The pitch is straightforward: no state income tax, lighter regulation, and a government that treats employers as assets rather than targets.
The governor has shown a willingness to escalate when the political moment calls for it. Fox News reported that ahead of the New York City mayoral election, Abbott posted on X that he would impose a "100% tariff" on anyone moving from New York City to Texas after the polls closed, a tongue-in-cheek jab that underscored how confident Texas Republicans are that Mamdani's agenda will push residents south. (Tariff powers, of course, belong to the federal government, not individual states.)
President Trump weighed in as well. As Newsmax reported, Trump endorsed Andrew Cuomo in the mayoral race and warned that federal funds to New York City could dry up under a Mamdani administration. "It can only get worse with a communist at the helm, and I don't want to send, as president, good money after bad," Trump wrote on Truth Social.
A White House adviser told the Post that Mamdani's rhetoric is a political gift, one that could help Republicans retain the White House in 2028, long after President Trump leaves office. That assessment reflects a growing belief among GOP strategists that the hard-left governance on display in New York City is the best advertisement for conservative economic policy that money can't buy.
Mamdani's first months in office have already generated a string of controversies, from broken promises on housing and homelessness to confrontations with federal law enforcement. The pied-a-terre tax push is the latest chapter in an administration that appears more interested in punishing success than in governing a complex city.
The financial sector did not drift to Texas by accident. It followed incentives, lower costs, fewer regulatory burdens, and political leaders who view private enterprise as a partner rather than an adversary. New York built its global dominance on the opposite promise: that the density of talent, capital, and ambition in Manhattan was worth the premium. That bargain only holds if the city's leadership does not actively drive the talent away.
Paterson, a Democrat who governed New York through a financial crisis, understands this. His willingness to organize a bipartisan group to push back against Mamdani's direction signals that the concern is not partisan. It is existential, for the city's budget, its workforce, and its standing as the financial capital of the world.
Abbott, meanwhile, has shown a consistent instinct for seizing on the failures of progressive governance and turning them into recruiting tools for Texas. Whether the issue is border security or corporate tax policy, the formula is the same: let the left overreach, then offer an alternative.
Mamdani's office did not respond to the Post's request for comment. The silence is telling. When the mayor of America's largest city films himself outside a private citizen's home to promote a tax aimed at that citizen's wealth, and then has nothing to say when the backlash arrives, it suggests a leader more comfortable with the performance than with the consequences.
New York City does not need a mayor who treats its most productive residents like props in a campaign video. It needs one who understands that the people writing the biggest checks are also the ones with the easiest path to the exit, and that Texas is holding the door wide open.
