Boca Raton Mayor Singer to Newsmax: We'll Welcome New Yorkers Fleeing Mamdani

Scott Singer, the Republican mayor of Boca Raton, Florida, told Newsmax on Thursday he has one message for New Yorkers fearful over the possible election of hard-line liberal Zohran Mamdani as the Big Apple's mayor: My city will welcome you with open arms, and low taxes.

Mamdani, a New York state assemblyman and member of the Democratic Socialists of America, won the city's Democrat primary Tuesday night and is in line to become its first Muslim mayor. He campaigned on progressive initiatives, including reduced funding for law enforcement and opening publicly funded grocery stores through higher taxes on wealthier residents.

"For decades, we've been attracting the best of New York and the best of larger cities fleeing high-tax, high-crime, high-regulation jurisdictions," Singer told "Newsline." "New York City, where I lived for 10 years and before I came back, thankfully, to Boca Raton, is about to get a lot worse. If what we see proposed on Tuesday goes forward, billions in taxes driving companies out. Efforts to cut down on police. In Boca Raton, we've not only funded police, we have the highest starting salary of any city in the southeast.

"We value public safety. That gives the quality of life that allows us to have 14,000 businesses, 40 publicly traded companies and so much more great talent . . . I had one broker yesterday morning tell me that he'd gotten three inbound calls that morning alone, the day after the primary, for businesses looking to come from New York to Boca Raton. So, we welcome you."

Boca Raton, which is home to Newsmax's corporate headquarters, has a population of more than 102,000 as of July 2024, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. A study of driver's license data by The Palm Beach Post in 2023 showed that New Yorkers led the way for the most newcomers to Palm Beach County, where Boca Raton is located, with 8,059 in 2022 alone.

"Boca Raton has the lowest property tax rate of any full-service city in Florida, and we've kept our government lean and our taxes low because we focus on real governance, getting the trash picked up, having world-class services at every level," said Singer, who has been mayor since 2018. "We don't focus on other virtue-signaling things. Several years ago, there was an initiative by one council member to ban plastic straws, which made no sense. We're going to have plastic everything else. We tell kids, you can't have a juice box or chocolate milk.

"And there's also a disparate impact on the disability community. So, we stopped that. Instead, we focused on common-sense proposals to eliminate littering, to cut down on littering. We've never had fluoride in our water. Sixty years ago, a mayor before me said there's plenty of other commercially available solutions. And the city every 10 to 15 years, this issue has come up and said, we're just going to keep it as is. We're ahead of the curve of other states."

Florida Atlantic University's campus in Boca Raton reportedly is being considered as a site for President Donald Trump's presidential library and museum – Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate is in nearby Palm Beach in Palm Beach County.

Singer, who was elected mayor in a special election in 2018, is ineligible to run for a third three-year term in 2026 because of term limits. He said he is working with the America First Policy Institute on launching a national mayors council that can lobby lawmakers in Washington, D.C.

"America First Policy Institute has put together a whole range of programs, governors council, attorneys general council," Singer said. "I pitched them on the idea of a mayors council because we're really the leaders in the city where the rubber meets the road on the daily governance that affects us most. And it's great to get conservative ideas there and also articulate the conservative America first message on how it relates to successful cities. So, look forward to working with my colleagues on that."

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