Behind Florida’s fine sand beaches and bright green palm trees, a roaring and thriving economy isn’t just running on sunshine; it’s a direct result of a "secret sauce" that combines aggressive private-sector growth with a stark fiscal contrast to the policies of high-tax, Democratic-led states.
While hubs like New York and California descend into what Florida Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Mark Wilson calls a "death spiral," the Sunshine State is officially open for business as a global superpower. With more than $4 million in wealth flowing across its borders every single hour, Florida has leapfrogged Spain to become the 15th-largest economy in the world — and Wilson says the state is just getting started.
"Part of the secret sauce in Florida is that we're all on the same page," Wilson told Fox News Digital. "The business community, our elected leaders, we understand that economic growth — growing the private sector and shrinking the public sector — that's good for everyone in Florida. So we have 23.5 million people here, and we want to create economic opportunity and good jobs for everyone who wants to be in Florida."
"I always say, if Florida was a stock, I'd be investing everything I had in it. It's because of our economic diversification strategy and our focus on growing business and growing jobs," he continued.
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Wilson provided the most current statistics around Florida’s population and wealth migration, which began in the early post-pandemic period. The number of new residents moving to the state every day has decreased from a peak of 1,000 to between 500 and 600 people, while the amount of income has remained the same at just over $4 million, "24 hours a day, nights, weekends, holidays included."
The Chamber’s 2030 blueprint aims to raise Florida’s economy to a top-10 spot by that landmark year, and Wilson remained confident in the state’s ability to accomplish that goal, noting the state is reportedly close to surpassing Australia for 14th place.
"Florida leads the nation by a country mile [in income migration]," Wilson said. "States like New York, Illinois, and California are losing over 1 million dollars an hour of income. And so, if you look at the death spiral that New York is right now, for example, New Yorkers are looking at increasing income taxes, they're looking at increasing property taxes. Of course, Florida doesn't have an income tax."
"The big economics lesson in America right now is Florida's tax revenue’s up… our tax rates have gone down. But people are relocating to Florida, they're moving their businesses here, they're investing in our communities... that's actually driving additional tax revenue," he added.
Specific failures of these high-tax states go beyond the economics, as Wilson also responded to numerous reports in the new year that many prominent California billionaires and business leaders — Larry Page, Sergey Brin, Mark Zuckerberg and others — have moved to Florida, and critics of wealthy movers.
"A lot of people ask us, what's the secret to Florida's success? And at the Florida Chamber, we believe that no one else is responsible for Florida's success except for Florida," Wilson noted. "We have to look at everything from kindergarten readiness to, how do we cut childhood poverty in half? How do we make sure we have the best education system in the nation, the best legal climate, tax climate, regulatory climate, and the best quality of life of anywhere on the continent? And that's exactly what Florida's done."
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"People of all incomes, of all different backgrounds are relocating to Florida to work, to retire, to learn, to take advantage of our education system… Florida is literally a land of opportunity where everyone can succeed. We're so grateful to have all of these billionaires moving into Florida because they bring their businesses with them, they invest in communities," he explained.
"These billionaires believe that Florida can do this, and they want to be here to take advantage of the innovation, the creativity, the resiliency, the growth opportunity that we have here in Florida. And states like California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey — they're literally killing innovation. They're literally putting a lid on these types of opportunities that really make America as good as it is."
Wilson also touted fiscal sanity, running the state truly like a business, staying within budget while utilizing the synergy between Florida’s public and private sectors.
"New York's been in the news a lot lately. Florida has more people than the state of New York, but New York’s state budget is twice the state budget of Florida," the CEO detailed, "and so as they look to raise property taxes and income taxes in New York, we look to cut them."
"Something that doesn't get a lot of notoriety is Florida has the lowest debt per capita of any state in America. Not just compared to the big states of any state in America. It's only about $1,000 per resident. We literally pay cash for things. And when Florida does borrow money, we're paying lower interest rates than almost any other state in the country."
Looking ahead to 2030, Wilson says it’s easy to imagine what success looks like in Florida aside from the rising GDP and income migration.
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"We found out that even though we were creating about one out of every 10 jobs in America, we have over 700,000 children living in poverty," he said. "What we discovered is, over half of our kids in poverty live in just 15% – or 150 – of our ZIP codes. So by making the schools in those ZIP codes the best schools in Florida... that's the kind of economic development that's going to grow communities."
"We cannot become the 10th largest economy in the world if we don't have our kids reading at grade level and if we don't cut childhood poverty in half. So it all is part of one big puzzle and there's no silver bullet… and I think it's why Florida is the example of where the rest of the country can go."
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