California Conservative

The S.F. Chronicle reports: “For the first time since 1998, the people who relocated from California to other states outnumbered those who migrated in from other states, according to a report released by the state’s Department of Finance on Thursday.”

More people leaving and less people coming to the blue “golden state?” How can this be? Say it isn’t so. According to Hollywood, everything is great, man.

California, which had a population of more than 37 million in 2005, had a net loss of 28,565 people to other states during the fiscal year that ended July 1, according to report estimates.

A department analyst said the loss can’t be blamed on a mass exodus similar to one that the state experienced before the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.

Howard Roth, chief economist with the department, said California’s housing costs discourage people from other states from moving here.

“The outflow hasn’t changed much, but fewer people are coming here,” Roth said. “Houses were already unaffordable, but they’ve become more so in the last two years. It’s discouraging people from taking job offers in California.”

Housing a problem. Education a problem. Anything else?

Still, the state population grew to 37,004,661 by July 1, an increase of 1.4 percent or nearly 500,000 people, according to the report.

It concluded that 64.2 percent of the growth could be attributed to natural increase, which continued a trend that began in 2002. About 557,000 births and 237,000 deaths occurred in the state during the fiscal year, accounting for an increase of 320,000 people.

The report also estimated that the state netted an increase of more than 207,000 immigrants, legal and undocumented.

Unlike the fluctuating numbers for domestic migration, immigration from other countries has been fairly consistent since 1991. It ranged from a low of 174,198 in 1995 to a crest of 290,811 in 2001.

So, basically, what that means is: immigration is not as high as 2001, but it’s far from low.

With California’s economy sagging, public services crying for more money, and the state’s budget deficit a major concern, perhaps the broad costs of illegal immigration should be weighed into the study.

After all, if people are leaving because they can’t afford housing and don’t want to send their children to lousy public schools, what sense does it make for illegals to be coming here? They have even less chance of buying a home and our schools already have a tough time teaching proper grammar. Just the facts.

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 4th, 2006 at 1:31 pm and is filed under California, Culture, Economy, Immigration. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.