Billboards warn New York, New Jersey residents are moving out en masse

FIRST ON FOX: Americans are voting with their feet, leaving high-tax, high-regulation states like New York and New Jersey behind. Unleash Prosperity is now warning that these states aren’t just losing residents — they’re losing wealth.

Billboards reading, “New Yorkers aren’t moving up, they’re moving out!” and, “New Jersey isn’t moving up, families are moving out!” popped up on Thursday in high-traffic areas of New York and New Jersey. 

Unleash Prosperity told Fox News Digital it plans on leaving its warning signs in place until Nov. 19.

“We’re running this billboard campaign to alert people, the citizens of those states, that you’re losing your most precious resource in New Jersey and New York. And you know what that precious resource is? Your people, your citizens, your businesses and the money that they spend,” Steve Moore, the founder of Unleash Prosperity and a former Trump administration economic advisor, told Fox News Digital.

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Unleash Prosperity’s Vote With Your Feet campaign tracks data from the IRS and other agencies to create interactive maps showing how population and wealth are moving across the country. The campaign site has interactive maps depicting the movement of people and money, as well as their politics.

Moore said that while the first “big wave” of migration the group tracked in the U.S. occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, as residents of closed blue states moved to open red states, the pattern goes beyond that.

“Our study looks over the last 10 years. So, it’s not just the COVID effect,” he explained.

The former Trump administration economic advisor said “there’s no question” that the country’s politics will become more polarized if the population shift continues. Moore said it used to be that New Yorkers going to Florida would vote Democrat in the Sunshine State. But now, he said, those moving out of New York and New Jersey are doing so for ideological reasons as well as economic ones. He also noted that Florida and Texas have become redder, not more purple, as people flee blue states.

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Moore declined to comment on specific candidates running for New York City mayor or New Jersey governor, but he said that politicians looking to hold those offices should know that “raising taxes in New Jersey or New York would be a disaster.”

“I believe if New York were to raise its income taxes — [like] some of the politicians are talking about — that Wall Street would no longer be located in New York City. It would move out,” he said. Moore touched on New Jersey as well, saying that many residents are fleeing the state because of its high taxes.

“New Jersey is the third highest taxed state in the country, one of the highest income taxes, one of highest business taxes, and small businesses and big businesses can’t do business there anymore. So, the policies need to be reversed,” he told Fox News Digital.

The four states that have lost the most people and the most income are New York, California, New Jersey and Illinois, according to Moore. He pointed to a common denominator that all four states share: “very, very high taxes.”

In addition to taxes and politics, Moore said crime and bad schools are other factors pushing blue state residents to flee. He said he sees crime as another kind of tax.

“I think crime is a tax. And if you can’t feel safe walking down the streets of your neighborhood, you’re going to want to leave,” he said.

Moore also said that if blue states were to allow school choice — a move that some say would allow low-income families to give their children better educational opportunities — they would see fewer residents leaving.

Moore said red lawmakers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, have handled crime control well and have kept taxes low — something he said are the keys to their success. He said that lawmakers in blue states should aim to be more pro-business, to fight crime and to get rid of “all of the things that make cities today unlivable.” He pointed to the example former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani set when the Republican cleaned up the country’s most populated city.

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While he had criticisms of lawmakers in blue cities and states, Moore pointed to examples of Democrats who were doing well with population retention: San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and Houston Mayor John Whitmire.

Moore described Lurie as a “very pro-business, moderate Democrat” and said he is “cleaning up” the city and that people are coming back. Moore said Whitmire was a “no-nonsense” lawmaker who is fighting crime, cutting expenses and keeping taxes low.

“That’s what Democratic mayors and governors should be doing if they want to save their cities and states,” Moore said.