Utah’s governor doesn’t want Californians invading his state. Too bad | Opinion
It’s no secret that Californians have been personae non gratae in other parts of the country, and the governor of Utah just confirmed that in a very public way.
“We would love for people to stay in California instead of coming as refugees to Utah,” Gov. Spencer Cox said during a break at a recent meeting of the National Governors Association.
The Beehive State is not alone in rolling up the welcome mat whenever Californians come sniffing around. A gubernatorial candidate in Boise, Idaho, once laughingly spoke of erecting a wall around his city to keep out Californians, and a poll conducted last year found that California is the state most hated by other states.
And who can forget the infamous “Don’t Californicate Oregon” bumper sticker campaign that started decades ago? That slogan has since been co-opted by other states. “Don’t California My Texas” is one of the more popular versions; so much so that it found its way into Gov. Greg Abbott’s fundraising campaign.
“We can’t let California cash turn Texas blue. Add your name to send a message to California liberals: Don’t California my Texas!” he pleaded.
Housing is a factor
Why all this animosity? It’s partly attributable to the perception that California transplants, cash-rich after selling their high-priced homes in L.A. and the Bay Area, are driving up the cost of housing and making it less accessible to locals.
There’s truth to that, although economists generally agree that it’s just one factor, and they point out that newcomers are coming from other states as well.
“Californians aren’t all to blame for what’s happening in Utah,” the Salt Lake City-based Deseret News reported. “The state ranks top of the nation for its economy with among the lowest unemployment rates — and it’s been among the fastest-growing states in the nation for over a decade. So Utah’s own population growth adds to the demand and, therefore, the price increases.”
Stereotyping also plays a role: In other parts of the nation, California has become synonymous with smog, traffic, high housing prices, over-regulation, burdensome taxes, homelessness, drought, earthquakes, left-wing politics and obnoxious, self-entitled people, including a snooty governor who dines at the French Laundry.
In other words, we’re just one giant, corrupt megalopolis, and we’ll spread our ills to other states if too many of us take up residence there.
Apparently, folks espousing such views haven’t heard of Los Alamos or San Ardo or Georgetown, or any of the other small communities located up and down our state. Nor do they recognize that California ranks first in the nation for agricultural cash receipts, which means we must be at least a little bit country, right?
Most of us are perfectly decent people, if you only give us a chance. The majority of Californians moving to red states like Utah and Idaho and Texas are more likely to be conservative or apolitical, rather than far left.
And — if we’re all so annoyingly liberal — how do you explain Kevin McCarthy?
California business is welcome. People not so much
It’s all too easy to blame Californians (who have been compared to a plague of locusts) for some of the growing pains experienced by boom states that pride themselves on their rural character.
“We’ve grown so quickly, we need a larger supply of housing,” Utah’s governor said. “That’s where our focus is. We’re not working to attract more people. We’re doing just fine that way.”
Yet at the same time, states like Utah, Montana and Texas are actively recruiting businesses and industries, especially if they bring high-paying jobs, and their leaders often brag when they entice companies away from California. But you can’t grow the business sector in a vacuum. More jobs mean more people, along with more housing, roads, schools, hospitals, shopping centers, and fire and police departments.
If they sincerely wanted to avoid higher housing prices and break-neck growth, boom states would not have been so quick to woo the Elon Musks of the business world. But now that it’s happened, it’s too late to raise the drawbridge.
With all due respect, Gov. Cox, it’s time to recognize that all Americans — including Californians — have the right to live in any one of our great states.
As your population increases, you would be better off looking to the Golden State to learn from its mistakes, such as our lack of affordable housing and urban sprawl, instead of blaming Californian “refugees” for your growing pains.
