Utah Governor: Californians, Stay Home

While in Washington, D.C. last week for the National Governors Association annual winter meeting, Utah Governor Spencer Cox spoke out against Californians moving to his state, saying that California’s expats should “stay home” and avoid contributing to Utah’s housing and water crises. 

As Alexandra E. Petri explains in the Los Angeles Times, “According to the U.S. census, Utah’s population grew from 2,763,885 people in 2010 to 3,271,616 in 2020, an increase of 18.3%, the highest in the nation.” In 2018, Californians accounted for 18,000 new arrivals to Utah, almost a quarter of Californians who outmigrated that year. However, Petri notes that “Utah’s largest share of outbound domestic transplants went to California.”

In addition to the water crisis facing the western states, Utah, like much of the country, has a housing shortage of roughly 31,000 units, leading to higher housing costs that are increasingly unaffordable for many residents.