Tax Busters: Whom Is Mayor Adams Going To Call?
Jamie Dimon is touting the Lone Star State as an example of the policies that beckon for New York, which is 49th on the State Business Climate Tax Index.

Is Texas the answer to what ails New Yorkâs economy? While Mayor Adams touts a new Green Economy Action Plan to boost the cityâs anemic job growth, the head of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, says the Empire State would be better off following the example set by low-regulation, low-tax Texas. âThey donât want business,â is how Mr. Dimon sums up New York, urging the Empire State to âlook at other states, which are almost completely opposite.â
The remarks by the chairman and chief executive of Americaâs biggest bank came during a visit earlier this week to Texas where he âapplauded,â Bloomberg News reports, the Lone Star Stateâs âbusiness-friendly policies.â Touring a new training facility at Houston, he explained that âmayors and governorsâ often call him to ask âJamie, what can we do to get more employees?â The answer, Mr. Dimon said, is âyou can look at other states.â
The Chase chief practices what he preaches. JPMorgan now has upwards of 30,000 employees in Texas, compared with fewer than 29,000 in New York, a decline, Bloomberg reports, from 35,000. Driving the shift are âTexasâs lack of an income tax and its light regulatory touch, which,â Bloomberg says, âhave prompted companies to relocate or expand in the state.â Mr. Dimonâs bank is among other corporate titans migrating Texasward.
Electric automaker Tesla and investment giant Charles Schwab are among those who pulled up stakes on the Coast and relocated their headquarters to Texas. Caterpillar, too, made the move to Texas from another high-tax state, Illinois. Itâs hard to blame them. The Tax Foundation ranks California among the bottom â 48th â of the states in its State Business Climate Tax Index. Low-tax Texas is rated 13th. New York, for its part, stands at 49th on the list.
That helps to explain why New York Cityâs economy is flailing. Some four years after the pandemic, the city has almost recovered the nearly a million jobs lost to shutdowns and other disruptions. For now, the City asks, âthe question is how fast the cityâs economy will add to its 4.7 million job base.â The prospects are bleak. Under the best-case estimate, the city will add but 88,000 jobs this year, the City says â half the national growth rate.
Plus also, too, regardless of oneâs views on the 45th president, it surely canât help New Yorkâs reputation as a business-friendly state to see what is happening in the courts to Mr. Trumpâs venerable family company, which helped inspire the fabric of the city. The Trump Organization faces a punitive $464 million judgment â and possible oblivion â in what looks like a politically motivated prosecution by the Attorney General.
Mr. Adams, for his part, has his priorities backwards. Instead of cutting taxes and regulations to lure private enterprise, he is talking about more spending. On Tuesday he announced $100 million for a âClimate Innovation Hubâ at Brooklyn and another $725 million to âbuild a green economy ecosystemâ to add âgreen-collar jobsâ here. So while Gotham dithers on job growth, Texas is eating New Yorkâs lunch. Time for Mr. Adams to place a call to Mr. Dimon.