Kevin O'Leary said Zohran Mamdani's proposed tax hikes were “beyond insane, but I love it” in a interview in February. He also said he would meet Mamdani in Miami within 12 to 18 months and hand him a “Real Estate Agent of the Year” award.
Mamdani’s February budget plan
Mamdani’s fiscal year 2027 preliminary budget floated a 9.5% property tax hike on homes and businesses. He framed it as a last resort if New York state lawmakers and Gov. Kathy Hochul refused to approve his preferred alternative, an income tax hike on the city’s wealthiest earners.
That sequence matters for residents and businesses because it shows the property-tax idea was not the only option on the table. The budget plan started with a higher levy on property, then shifted toward a tax aimed at the city’s highest earners before the property-tax proposal was later dropped after Mamdani secured additional state funding.
Florida and New York migration
O'Leary tied the tax fight to movement out of New York City, saying more high-income residents and businesses could leave for lower-tax states like Florida if taxes rise without spending cuts. Speaking about Miami Beach, he said, “Everybody from New York and New Jersey and Massachusetts is moving into my neighborhood,” placing the comment in a broader migration pattern he said was already underway.
The Florida side of that argument got a boost in May when Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said Mamdani had become one of Florida's “realtors of the year.” Migration trends have continued to show New York among the leading states sending new residents to Florida, which is the backdrop for O'Leary's point about who may leave first if the tax burden climbs.
Kevin O'Leary and Miami
The later political wrinkle is that Mamdani already pulled back the property-tax proposal after getting additional state funding. O'Leary's joke about a Miami meeting within 12 to 18 months suggests he sees the tax debate less as a policy footnote than as a driver of where people choose to live and invest.
For readers weighing the same question, the practical issue is simple: if New York City relies more on higher taxes and less on spending cuts, O'Leary's view is that the most mobile residents and businesses will keep comparing New York with Florida. That comparison, not the joke itself, is what will shape the next round of moves.
