Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson is predicting a “flood” of Wall Street firms will soon exit New York City for Texas, warning that the Big Apple’s status as the nation’s financial capital is no longer guaranteed. Johnson’s comments come as Dallas emerges as the second-largest financial services hub in the U.S., adding over 100,000 finance jobs in the last decade.+1
The Republican mayor expects this corporate migration to accelerate under the leadership of New York’s newly inaugurated mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Johnson argues that Mamdani’s “un-American socialist impulse”—including pledges to raise corporate taxes and freeze rents—is driving financiers to “vote with their feet.”
“The action isn’t here,” Johnson said of New York. “The action is in the western part of the country. What was already a trickle is going to turn into a flood of individuals and companies who have called New York home for a long time, moving to Dallas.”
Johnson, who worked with Governor Greg Abbott to secure major investments from firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, believes the shift is historic. He compared New York’s potential decline to Venice losing its dominance as Europe’s premier trading hub centuries ago.
“It’s not inconceivable at all that within a certain number of years, people look back and go, ‘Do you remember back when New York was the financial capital of the United States? Isn’t that weird?’” Johnson said. Dallas is already seeing the fruits of this strategy, as JPMorgan now employs more workers in Texas than in New York.
The launch of the Texas Stock Exchange (TXSE) later this year is expected to further cement this shift. Backed by financial heavyweights like BlackRock and Citadel Securities, the TXSE aims to provide a more business-friendly alternative to the NYSE and Nasdaq.
In response to the TXSE, even traditional New York institutions are expanding their footprint in the Lone Star State. The New York Stock Exchange recently announced the creation of “NYSE Texas,” a fully electronic exchange to be headquartered in Dallas.
Johnson pitched Dallas as a safer, more affordable alternative with falling property taxes and no state income tax. He pointed to streamlined permitting processes, such as the approval for Goldman Sachs’ new $700 million campus, as evidence of the city’s pro-growth climate.+1
“You’re talking about an environment where they’re trying to find new ways to tax people, compared to one where we’re trying to push down the one tax we’ve got,” Johnson noted. He emphasized that Dallas offers the “best of New York” without the “suffocating vice grip of government bureaucrats.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Mamdani’s office maintains that his proposed tax hikes on high earners will raise $9 billion annually to fund essential public services. However, Johnson remains convinced that the high cost of living and rising tax burdens in New York will continue to fuel the rise of “Y’all Street.”