NYC Risks Losing Billions as Companies Shift Jobs to Texas, Florida and Beyond

0:00 Speaker 1 What’s going on in New York City? Well, there’s nobody better to talk to than Steve Phillip, and he is the president and CEO of the New York City Partnership, which represents 300 of the largest companies in New York. Well, Steve Phillip, we had UN Week. The streets were a mess.

0:20 A lot of meetings, a lot of conferences. Give us an update of what you know.

0:26 Speaker 2 All right. So I’ll talk a little bit about kind of the partnership in the business community here. I mean, the week started, obviously, with the president meeting with the mayor and Gracie Manchin. You know, it’s really a positive that the mayor has been able to build a good relationship with the president. They announced, obviously, the potential to

0:48 work together on Sunnyside. For us, that’s a great thing. I mean, the affordability crisis in New York City is directly related to housing costs and a lack of supply. That could be more than 10,000 units. I think the challenge is going to be time. The president only has two years left in his term. Two and a half.

1:09 Two and a half. And these are complicated projects that have taken multiple decades to get to this place. So You know, it’s going to take a lot of pushing, but that would be a great thing for the city if we’re able to see that move forward. And then I would just tell you from the business standpoint, the

1:25 other thing worth highlighting is that, you know, the business community met with Jacob Cox, and some people may know who he is. He’s the anthropic researcher from the artificial intelligence company that was the first to– sound the bell around alarm that the companies aren’t doing enough. So interestingly, he asked for an audience with the New York city

1:46 business community leadership. And, uh, you know, there were about 150 CEOs on that call. It shows you that people are very interested in how AI is going to impact the city. And, uh, of course the country and globe.

2:00 And so, you know, we did that earlier in the week and, and, and that’s on top of terrible week of traffic, John.

2:06 Speaker 1 Understood. Um, Well, where do we go from here? I mean, I was on Fox last week, and I said that I am glad that the president is meeting with the mayor because in civilization, everybody sits down and meets.

2:27 Speaker 2 Yeah, I think... it’s a good thing that they’ve built this relationship. I mean, the affordability crisis is something that’s obviously impacting the president’s polling numbers. You see gas prices and grocery numbers, grocery store costs escalating. And people feel that, of course, and they talk about it. But then on a much more local level here in New York City,

2:51 housing costs, child care costs, um, are very, very high. So there’s an overlap there around the affordability conversation and being that they’re not the most traditional of, of alliances that you would expect. It, it bodes well for both of them politically. So, um, I think that people should be encouraged that the mayor has that skill. The president

3:13 is obviously receptive as it helps him as well. And, uh, the people that will benefit the most, hopefully are residents of New York city.

3:20 Speaker 1 One of the, you have the pulse of, uh, A lot of large companies in New York and a lot of the large banks have been moving, I guess, people to Texas or Florida, much friendlier environments for business. Give us the pulse of what’s going on. Is the movement continuing?

3:43 Is there still a lot of concern?

3:46 Speaker 2 So I think... I mean, look, it’s a complicated conversation because New York City is still a special place and the most desirable place for young people to be after college. And that’s an important narrative, but it’s not something that is impossible to be changed. Texas is making a real concerted effort, and it’s beyond just taxes. They changed their

4:11 entire court system. to make it look like Delaware for more corporate friendly. They’re starting a Texas stock exchange to give access to capital markets. They have cheaper housing costs. So they have a deliberate strategy around this. Now, the impact is... Are some of these major corporations that are in New York City going to pick up and leave permanently?

4:33 The answer is probably not because they need to have a presence in New York City. But the biggest challenge for New York is that most of them are choosing not to scale up and invest here. And that means there’s billions of dollars that New Yorkers lose to fund programs.

4:48 So if you think about it from, let’s say, Goldman Sachs’ standpoint, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, they had 10,000 employees in New York City. They were a much smaller company. Today, I think there are 40,000 employees, so much larger, and they still have 10,000 employees here, meaning that they’ve been invested.

5:07 Speaker 1 So as the large companies expand, they may be able to maintain the capacity They’re old numbers in New York. Is that what you’re saying?

5:18 Speaker 2 Yeah. Yeah, but they’re not building here, growing here. So that means that every job that goes to Texas is really a lost job from here. So even if they’re maintaining or slightly decreasing, it still isn’t good for New York City. The jobs that are going to Texas, really, or Utah or Florida, they should be New York City jobs.

5:38 So we’re losing every single time one of those happens.

5:42 Speaker 1 Understood. Anything else you want to tell the American people, New Yorkers, New York, New Jersey, you know, whatever?

5:51 Speaker 2 No, I look, I think next week will be a better week now that we have, you know, most of these presidents and prime ministers stop creating traffic on our streets. Next week will be an easier opportunity to move around the city if you’re there. So it’ll be great.

6:06 Speaker 1 Thank you so much for coming on and keep the pulse going because between yourself and WABC, we transmit what’s going on in our city and our country through you and through WABC. Thank you so much. Thank you.