America’s population is growing, new Census data show, yet New York’s is shrinking. So while Gov. Cuomo claims the state’s “on the right track,” as he did last week, residents are voting with their feet.
Between July 2017 and June 2018, the Empire Center’s E.J. McMahon reports, 180,306 more New Yorkers fled than moved in from elsewhere in the nation — making the state one of just seven to see a population drop.
Since 2015, the number of New York residents has fallen by 119,202.
Yes, the state recouped some of that, thanks to immigration from outside the country. New York also saw more births than deaths, fueling a “natural increase” in population.
Yet the bottom line was still down by 48,510, or about 0.2 percent, to 19,378,012. The nation as a whole, by contrast, grew by about 0.6 percent, to 327,167,434.
The flight from New York is no sudden fluke: The state’s share of the US population has slipped for decades. In 1953, New York boasted 45 seats in the House of Representatives. It’s down to 27 now — and Election Data Services projects from the Census data that the state will lose two more after 2020.
What explains the Empire State’s nation-leading out-migration? Cuomo has blamed the colder weather, compared to southern states. Perhaps he’s partly right (though he ignores the South’s own weather woes, like hurricanes).
Yet this much is undeniable: People go where jobs are. And where they can afford to live. New York’s problem is that places where employment opportunities exist, such as in the city, are too expensive. And places that aren’t pricey, such as upstate, lack jobs.
Meanwhile, onerous taxes and heavy business mandates — the $15 minimum wage, paid-leave laws, etc. — drive away employers and their jobs. All by itself, Cuomo’s ban on fracking snuffed out a lucrative industry that could’ve helped stem the race for the exits in places like the Southern Tier.
Last year, Federal Reserve analysts reported that upstate’s anemic growth had come to a virtual stop by 2016.
The reasons for New York’s nonstop population drops are no secret — and the biggest one is the leaders who balk at the steps needed to reverse course.