On Wednesday’s broadcast of WABC’s “Sid & Friends in the Morning,” Mayor Eric Adams (D) responded to a question on why people keep moving from New York to Florida if Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) is as bad as Adams claims by stating that moving to Florida is “extremely appealing and attractive” when you look at New York’s taxes and that while high taxes are a “real” issue, “it’s difficult” given New York City’s population and the “obligations” that come with having people coming “from distant shores” to the city.

Host Sid Rosenberg asked, [relevant exchange begins around 5:00] “[H]ere’s where it comes off tough for you: If all those things are true, and he’s such a bad Governor and he’s so anti-American in all those respects, you’re going to have to explain, Mayor, why everybody, in big numbers, is leaving New York and going to his state. How do you explain that, if, in fact, he’s such a disaster?”

Adams responded, “Well, I think that you look at some very important areas. It’s extremely appealing and attractive when you look at our laws, our tax laws here and the tax laws in Florida. New York and California, we pay some of the highest income tax rates. That’s real, that’s a very real issue. But it’s difficult when you have a city of this number, 8.5 million people. New York City has always had the Statue of Liberty in its harbor. You and I and others, our family came from distant shores to come here, and there [are] a lot of obligations that [come] with that. But at the same time, this has been a place of prosperity and wealth.”

He continued, “He railed about crime. When people don’t realize, that, when you look at the stats, Florida actually has a higher murder rate than New York City. Last year, we had a double-digit decrease in murders, and we are down 12.5% this year. But when you look at Florida, per 100,000 residents, they have 7.3 murders per 100,000 residents in ’21, and ours was 5.5 per 100,000. So, when you rail about something about New York, crime is an issue, the numbers just don’t add up in comparison to Florida.”

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