The exodus from California has been impressive. Industry, businesses, and celebrities are ditching the Golden Coast for better times in red states. Why wouldn’t they? States like Nevada, Tennessee, Florida, and others offer so much that California doesn’t. Namely, lower taxes, more personal freedom, lower crime rates, far less vagrancy and open-air drug use, and in the case of Florida, a robust, booming economy.
Celebrities like Elon Musk, Rod Stewart, Katy Perry, Mark Wahlberg, and many others have skipped town and headed to more welcoming red states. However, since official numbers are kept for states losing population, we do know that California also once again secured the ignominious distinction as the state to lose the most citizens in 2023.
Certainly, this isn’t the distinction that Governor and potential presidential candidate Gavin Newsom wants to hang his hat on, but considering the condition in the state has only continued its downward spiral, it isn’t an unexpected development. The liberal stronghold has seen its population numbers and, subsequently, its state tax intake take blow after blow. In fact, it is the fourth year in a row that California has garnered the dubious distinction.
U-Haul publishes its Growth index report annually, noting the differences between the number of one-way U-Hauls coming into a state or city versus departures. If it is a one-way rental, the population gain goes to the destination state, and for four years running, the destination has been anywhere but California.
John Taylor, U-Haul International president, said in a statement Tuesday: “While one-way transactions in 2023 remained below the record-breaking levels we witnessed immediately following the pandemic, we continued to see many of the same geographical trends from U-Haul customers moving between states.” While that is a polite way to say it, what he is implying is exactly what has been happening for four years now: people are fleeing California.
This begs the question, who is the big winner, population-wise? For three years running, the big winner has been the Lone Star State. Texas has gained the biggest bump population-wise, as California residents realize that life is better in Texas. The founder of a Facebook group dedicated to residents fleeing California, Terry Gilliam, talked about the ongoing trend.
The former California resident said: “All you have to do is look at the continuing move left by California and you can see why middle-class and upper-class taxpayers — the producers — are leaving.” Gilliam lived in the Golden State for over 20 years, but sought a better life in Ron DeSantis’ Florida two years ago. His Facebook group has grown so much that he now offers resources for Californians planning a relocation to The Sunshine State.
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Gilliam went on to say: “The gas tax — already the highest in the country — goes up every July 1st. Most utilities just received permission for a double-digit increase in rates, which are already more than double the national average for rates. Add to the above the cost of ever-increasing regulations, continuing resentment over pandemic mandates — with possibly more to come — transgender discussions with young children in school, and talk of raising taxes even more to cover an inept state government’s $68 billion deficit.”
It is clear that California has a problem. Gavin Newsom has taken the most beautiful state in the Union, with a budget surplus, and turned it into a liberal cesspool of crime, drugs, high taxes, homelessness, and despair. The state is in dire straits financially, and Newsom has designs on the White House. For the foreseeable future, the residents who don’t leave are finding out that voting has consequences, and the ones leaving are finding out life is better in a red state.