Utah Governor Tells Californians to ‘Stay in California’ Amid Exodus to Red States

Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox speaks during a briefing at the Utah State Capitol in Salt Lake City, Utah, on Jan. 8, 2021. Jeffrey D. Allred/Deseret News via AP

Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, said that Californians fleeing high taxes, crime, and other problems shouldn’t relocate to Utah, which has been the fastest-growing state over the past decade and faces a housing and water crunch.

“We would love for people to stay in California instead of coming as refugees to Utah,” Cox said in remarks to reporters in Washington on Feb. 10 after a meeting of governors with President Joe Biden in the East Room of the White House.

Forty-five governors were in town for the winter meeting of the National Governors Association, a bipartisan organization of the nation’s governors.

As the association’s vice chair, Cox spoke to reporters alongside New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, and the association’s chair.

The two recapped some of the issues discussed between governors and Biden, including border security, immigration, water rights, and the debt limit.

“The biggest issues of the day” were discussed, Cox said, listing as examples a trio of crises facing the nation—border, energy, and fentanyl—before noting that there’s a willingness for bipartisan action to address the problems.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy gives a victory speech to supporters at Grand Arcade at the Pavilion in Asbury Park, N.J., on Nov. 3, 2021. Eduardo Munoz Alvarez/Getty Images

Population Movements

Murphy was then asked about population movements, with a reporter noting that 67 percent of moves in New Jersey in 2022 were outbound, citing figures from a recent study on national movers by United Van Lines.

The study found that more residents moved out of New Jersey than any other state last year for the fifth consecutive year.

“New Jersey’s never been hotter than it is right now in terms of a place for families to come to raise their kids, for businesses to come,” Murphy said.

“We’re growing,” he added, noting that recent census data showed New Jersey growing roughly in line with the national average among states in terms of population growth.

“Affordability is job number one,” he continued, referring to the inflation-driven cost-of-living crunch that has been impacting families across the nation.

He said that New Jersey has been spending “enormous” amounts of energy and “a lot of money” on making the state as affordable as possible, noting such measures as property tax reductions.

Cox weighed in on the same issue of population movements between states, saying that Utah has the opposite problem.

“This last census confirmed that Utah was the fastest-growing state over the past 10 years, so our biggest problems are more growth-related,” he said.

“We would love for people to stay in California instead of coming as refugees to Utah, so we’re always trying to figure that out.”

Cox said that Utah’s biggest problems are housing and water because the state’s population has grown so quickly.

“We’re not working to attract more people,” he said. “We’re doing just fine that way. Utah was named the best state to start a business, with Texas and Florida number two and three, so we feel really good about that balance and where we are right now.”

California Exodus

Decades after President Ronald Reagan told Americans, “vote with your feet,” many are heeding his advice.

Several recent studies and surveys show that California, the nation’s most populous, is seeing an outflow of people.

The United Van Lines study, which was first launched in 1977, showed that deep-blue California once again ranked among states with the highest exoduses.

Most of the top 10 states for outbound population flows in the United Van Lines study were Democrat-led, with California (56 percent) in the 10th spot, while Illinois (64 percent) and New York (62 percent) joined New Jersey (67 percent) as the top three states in terms of outbound migration.

In a recent study conducted by moving truck rental company U-Haul, more moving trucks were found to have left California than any other state in 2022.

California ranked 50th on U-Haul’s Growth Index, meaning it saw the greatest net loss of one-way U-Haul trucks out of the state. It was followed by Illinois, which ranked 49th in 2022, as it did in 2021. Michigan came in at 48, Massachusetts at 47, and New York at 46 on the list of growth for 2022.

‘Taxes Are Too High’ Versus ‘Booming Economy’

Jim Doti, president emeritus at Chapman University, told The Epoch Times in 2022 that the main reason people are leaving California is high taxes.

“The taxes are too high, nothing is being done now,” Doti said in an interview with EpochTV’s “California Insider” program.

By contrast, Texas took the top spot in the U-Haul study, followed by Florida and South Carolina.

A spokesperson for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, praised the state’s “booming economy” when asked to comment on the U-Haul study’s findings.

“People and businesses vote with their feet, and they are choosing to move to Texas more than any other state in the country,” Abbott spokesperson Renae Eze told the New York Post.

A recent analysis by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) based on census data showed that California topped the list of states with the largest net domestic outmigration last year, with a loss of 343,230 people, followed by New York, which had a loss of 299,557 people, and Illinois, which lost 141,656 people.

By contrast, the NAR study showed that Florida (318,855 net gain), Texas (230,961 net gain), North Carolina (99,796 net gain), and South Carolina (84,030 net gain) were the states with the most net domestic migration gains.

Florida also ranked No. 1 in the country in terms of attracting and developing a skilled workforce, according to Lightcast’s 2022 Talent Attraction Scorecard, released in November 2022.

“By keeping Florida free and open, we have created a positive economic environment and invested in our state’s workforce and communities,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said in a statement responding to the study’s findings.

“As a result, Florida is leading the nation in net migration and talent attraction. As other states continue to struggle at the hands of poor leadership, people and businesses are flocking to Florida.”

The Lightcast report tracks several growth areas, including net migration, education attainment, job creation, skilled job creation, competitive effect, and average annual job openings.