National debates over taxes, migration and business climate have increasingly played out through state-by-state marketing campaigns. In Florida, that competition turned directly toward New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani as a pro-business message in Times Square and fresh migration data were used to argue that jobs and residents are shifting south. The backdrop is a long-running population outflow from New York that state and federal data sources continue to document.
Florida’s billboard campaign put Mamdani at the center of its message
A Washington Post report published January 23, 2026, said Boca Raton spent $70,000 on a roughly 30-foot-by-50-foot Times Square billboard shortly after New York City’s Democratic primary, part of an effort to attract companies and residents unsettled by Mamdani’s politics. The same report said the campaign drove an estimated 2,600 visits to a dedicated “NYtoBoca” website promoting the city to New Yorkers.
Separately, the Florida Chamber of Commerce featured a “Thanks for the Jobs” message on its “Why Select Florida” page and said New York’s policies were being recognized as “Florida Economic Developer of the Year.” The chamber described the billboard as a statement that when states make it harder to operate a business, investment and jobs do not disappear but move, increasingly to Florida.
The Mamdani angle is grounded in timing as much as wording. The Washington Post article said Boca Raton intensified its outreach after Mamdani’s rise in New York politics and after his January 1, 2026 swearing-in as mayor, with city officials openly pitching lower taxes and lower operating costs to executives and prospective residents.
The Internal Revenue Service’s 2022-2023 migration release, posted in March 2026, shows New York continuing to lose population through interstate moves, based on address changes reported on federal tax returns. The IRS notes that its migration files use returns and personal exemptions as a proxy for movers and do not represent the full U.S. population, but they remain one of the most closely watched measures of state-to-state movement.
A New York State Assembly economic and revenue report, citing U.S. Census Bureau domestic migration data for 2023, said New York lost a net 46,389 residents to Florida alone that year. The same report said 71,138 people moved from New York to Florida while 24,749 moved from Florida to New York, making Florida the top destination for departing New Yorkers in that dataset.
The “115 residents a day” figure appears to be a daily average derived from broader annual net losses rather than a separate IRS headline statistic. Using the Assembly report’s 2023 net domestic migration loss of 178,709 residents, the daily pace works out to about 490 people a day, while the net loss to Florida alone averages about 127 people a day; the public data reviewed do not show an official IRS line stating exactly 115 residents a day.
New York’s own budget and demographic documents say negative net migration has been a main factor in the state’s population decline. The Assembly report states that New York has been losing population to migration since 2012 and says the pattern has been especially pronounced among prime working-age residents, even as international migration has offset part of the loss.
Florida’s pitch has centered on taxes and business costs. The Washington Post report said Boca officials contrasted the city’s lower-tax environment with New York’s higher tax burden, while the Florida Chamber framed its campaign around private-sector job creation, investment and what it calls a more competitive operating climate.
For residents, the practical takeaway is that the billboard fight reflects a real policy contest between states, but the public data do not by themselves prove why each individual household moved. What is confirmed is that Florida entities have used Mamdani as a foil in recruitment messaging, and that official migration data continue to show New York losing residents overall and to Florida in particular.