Look out Florida and Texas \u2014 Tennessee wants a slice of New York City\u2019s pie, too.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Nashville is emerging as yet another pro-business powerhouse poised to take jobs away from the Big Apple \u2014 as socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani pushes tax hikes and other policies critics say are driving companies to flee<\/a>, the head of an influential New York business group warned Sunday.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think the most important thing as we get into the latter portion of this year is that the City Council starts to think about the fact, with the mayor, that New York City is on a trajectory that we\u2019re less and less competitive every single day,\u201d Steve Fulop, CEO of the Partnership for the City of New York, said Sunday on 77 WABC Radio\u2019s \u201cCats Roundtable.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Financial heavyweights have already begun shifting their workforces to lower-cost states since NYC democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani continues floating a menu of tax increases.\u00a0 Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n \u201cDallas and Miami and Nashville are actively pushing strategies to take jobs away from [NYC],<\/a>\u201d Fulop told the show host and billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis.\u00a0<\/p>\n The warning comes as a growing number of financial heavyweights and major corporations have already begun shifting their workforces to lower-cost states <\/a>\u2013 while Mamdani, a democratic socialist who campaigned on a freebie-filled progressive agenda, continues floating a menu of tax increases.\u00a0<\/p>\n His proposals include higher income taxes on the wealthy, increased estate taxes and steeper corporate levies.\u00a0<\/p>\n But taxes aren\u2019t the only factor pushing businesses across state lines, according to Fulop.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not only talking about taxes, [but] bureaucracy and layers of reporting and more difficulty to run a business,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAll of that stuff layers on top of one another and makes it pretty difficult to run a business in New York City.\u201d<\/p>\n The concerns aren\u2019t just hypothetical.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this year, Wall Street giant Apollo Global <\/a>Management revealed plans to establish a second US headquarters somewhere in the Sunbelt \u2013 with Nashville landing on a shortlist, alongside locations in Texas and South Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n Nashville is emerging as yet another pro-business powerhouse poised to take jobs away from the Big Apple, the head of an influential New York business group warned Sunday. Richard \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n While Apollo execs have yet to announce a final decision, the new office is expected to employ 1,000 people \u2014 matching the company\u2019s New York workforce.\u00a0<\/p>\n The $900 billion asset management firm paid roughly $1.28 billion in total income taxes in NYC in 2025.\u00a0<\/p>\n Music City has become increasingly attractive to other corporate giants across the US.\u00a0<\/p>\n Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks, for example, reportedly pledged to invest $100 million and bring 2,000 jobs to a major new corporate hub in Nashville.\u00a0<\/p>\n Global investment management firm AllianceBernstein helped pave the way by relocating its headquarters from the Big Apple to Nashville in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n Other billionaire executives have been outspoken about their frustrations with Mamdani \u2013 and plans to flee Gotham.\u00a0<\/p>\n Citadel founder Ken Griffin, along with Apollo CEO Marc Rowan, both warned they were prepared to remove thousands of jobs out of New York as a \u201cdirect consequence\u201d of Mamdani\u2019s \u201ctax the rich\u201d crusade.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n The backlash kicked off after Hizzoner posted a cringe-worthy social media video featuring Griffin\u2019s $238 million Midtown penthouse as a backdrop.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNew York City is on a trajectory that we\u2019re less and less competitive every single day,\u201d Steve Fulop, CEO of the Partnership for the City of New York, warned Sunday. \u00a0 Getty Images<\/p>\n An outraged Griffin first threatened to scrap a $6 billion Park Avenue development <\/a>for his hedge fund before publicly announcing that the \u201ccreepy\u201d video<\/a> had pushed him to expand Citadel\u2019s hub in Florida instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe will add far more jobs in Miami over the next decade as an immediate and direct consequence of the mayor\u2019s poor decision here with respect to his posting of that video,\u201d Griffin said.<\/p>\n