Representative Jimmy Patronis (R-FL) mocked New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's massive $127 billion city budget in a recent appearance on Fox Business's Varney & Co., pointing to it as another example of Democratic fiscal irresponsibility.
Mayor Mamdani unveiled the budget this week, announcing that it would require a city property tax hike of nearly 10%.
Florida, by contrast, has a budget of $117 billion for the entire state and a population nearly three times NYC's 8 million.
"In Florida, we had to recover from the foreclosure crisis," Rep. Patronis commented. "And then putting one foot after another, we cut taxes, we paid down debt, we never increased any of our types of revenue, and now look at us: We are in the best fiscal health we have ever been in the history of the state of Florida."
Such fiscal health, Rep. Patronis believes, has drawn hundreds of thousands of people moving to the Sunshine State, with 2025 seeing 400,000 new Floridians.
"They are bringing their wealth, they are bringing their businesses, they are bringing their investments, they are bringing their retirement accounts," the Florida congressman declared. "So we in Florida are in a vicious cycle of people, of prosperity, and unfortunately, New York is in a vicious downward cycle where they just do not have enough of other people's money to operate the city."
Host Stuart Varney referenced the announcement that Palantir, currently based in Denver, will soon relocate its headquarters to Miami, asking whether Florida is on track to become the new Silicon Valley.
Patronis replied, "That is exactly what we are at least aspiring to do as we continue to get the word out," describing how he had met three families from blue states (Illinois, New York, and New Jersey) who said they moved to Florida to escape high taxes.
"They wanted to keep more of their money," he concluded. "This is no difficult plan to adhere to. Their employees will be able to retain more of their money as they grow in a business-friendly environment in the great state of Florida."
