Large numbers of the wealthiest New York residents left the state when the Covid-19 pandemic first hit, but the trend was temporary and patterns have since returned to more routine levels, according to a new report.
In the earliest days of the pandemic, wealthy New Yorkers did indeed leave the state at high rates, according to the report, published this week by the Fiscal Policy Institute, an Albany-based, left-leaning think tank. The trend was driven mainly by people leaving New York City and the broad new ability to work remotely, at least for those with the resources to do so.
But by 2022, the number of high earners leaving the state had returned to pre-Covid levels, according to the report. The report defined high earners as those earning over $815,000 a year. That’s the top 1% of New Yorkers by income.
In fact, from 2020 to 2022, New York actually gained a net of more than 15,000 millionaire households: 2,400 left, but another 17,500 moved in.
The report also found no significant evidence of wealthy New Yorkers leaving the state due to taxes. That was a fear often mentioned in recent years by public officials and led both Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams to reject proposals to increase taxes on the rich, according to The New York Times.
The Fiscal Policy Institute found that out-migration didn’t jump significantly among those affected most by recent tax increases. And in fact, the institute found that when New York’s high earners move, they are more likely to move to other relatively high tax states like Connecticut, New Jersey and California.
Nearly all of New York’s overall population loss since 2020, over 93%, has come from New York City, the report said. That’s a reversal from the 2010s, when the city account for more than three-quarters of the state’s overall population growth.
The report also found that the people leaving New York at the fastest rate were families making between $32,000 and $65,000, according to the Times. A large share of those families were Black and Hispanic.
That group was followed by people earning $104,000 to $172,000, according to the Times.
Those people form the backbone of many essential services and white-color industries, the Times said. Losing them could endanger New York City’s recovery, said Andrew Beveridge, the president of Social Explorer, a demographic firm that reviewed the new data, according to the Times.
“If you want a subway system, an office sector, a restaurant industry, you need these people,” he said, according to the Times.
A separate report published this week by the Office of the New York State Comptroller found that one in every 100 state residents left New York in 2020, That was a significant surge in out-migration, according to The Daily Gazette in Schenectady.
“The pandemic upended everyone’s life and caused a big shift in the movement of New York taxpayers in 2020,” Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said in a news release. “While patterns shifted closer to pre-pandemic trends in 2021, net out-migration rates remained higher, particularly for families. Policy makers need to make sure the state remains an attractive, affordable place to work and to live. Doing so will help maintain the state’s largest revenue source to ensure vital services continue in order to provide a high quality of life for all New Yorkers.”
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