California Losing Population (Finally)

It's about time:

LOS ANGELES – Mike Reilly spent his lifetime chasing the California dream. This year he's going to look for it in Colorado.

With a house purchase near Denver in the works, the 38-year-old engineering contractor plans to move his family 1,200 miles away from his home state's lemon groves, sunshine and beaches. For him, years of rising taxes, dead-end schools, unchecked illegal immigration and clogged traffic have robbed the Golden State of its allure.

Is there something left of the California dream?

"If you are a Hollywood actor," Reilly says, "but not for us."

Since the days of the Gold Rush, California has represented the Promised Land, an image celebrated in the songs of the Beach Boys and embodied by Silicon Valley's instant millionaires and the young men and women who achieve stardom in Hollywood.

But for many California families last year, tomorrow started somewhere else.

The number of people leaving California for another state outstripped the number moving in from another state during the year ending on July 1, 2008. California lost a net total of 144,000 people during that period — more than any other state, according to census estimates. That is about equal to the population of Syracuse, N.Y.

Unfortunately, we'll end up losing those with the financial wherewithall to move, but will continue to gain illegals and others who are stuck here because they can't afford to get out. The traffic might get a little better, but the overall economy will decline.

UPDATE: Don Surber adds some thoughts:

The exodus of residents could cost it a congressional seat — and an Electoral College vote — in the next presidential election.

People are leaving California in numbers that outstrip any other state. For the year that ended last July 1, California had a net loss of 144,000 in people who move from state to state, AP reported.

It gets complicated. California’s population rose overall because of more births from immigrants and from illegal aliens. You are not an immigrant if you do not do the paperwork or you overstay your welcome.

So its growth was below that of the rest of the nation.

Which means it could slim down one congressional district.

Glenn Reynolds: “It’s like the whole high-tax, high-regulation thing isn’t working for them.”

That's a good point about the effect on the congressional delegation and the electoral college. Frankly, California has gone so far left that while the Dems will certainly bemoan a loss of influence in Congress and in future presidential elections, I won't. We don't need anymore nutty left congressmen or sure thing electoral votes for whoever the Dem nominee is. Let a red state have that vote.