Editorial: Remember why people vote with their feet

The Editorial Board, Las Vegas Review-Journal on Jun 4, 2025

Published in Op Eds

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The roads leaving California are filled with people driven out by good intentions.

Recent population numbers show the Las Vegas Valley continues to grow rapidly. From the summer of 2020 to the summer of 2024, the region’s population jumped by 120,000 people, a 5.4 percent increase. The growth rate nationally was 2.6%.

That increase is driven partly by people moving from California. They aren’t just coming to Southern Nevada. Former California residents have flocked to Florida, Texas and Arizona, too. This is a major reason that California’s population is lower now than it was before the pandemic.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that immigration is propping up the number of California residents. Absent new foreign residents, California’s population would have dropped in 2024.

It’s worth pondering the reasons for this. California Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t want to be seen as captaining a sinking ship. He was quick to brag about California’s meager population growth.

But this is a break from historical trends. From 1900 to 2018, the Golden State grew at a breathtaking pace. California was the place of dreams — with its sunny beaches and Hollywood glamour, along with its university system and tech hubs. But it’s hard to live out a dream when housing, power, gasoline and taxes grow ever more unaffordable.

That’s the reality facing California residents. The median sale price of homes in California is more than $720,000. Nationally, the median sale price is under $351,000. Power costs twice as much as the national average. Gasoline is around $4.80 a gallon in California and likely to go much higher. The national average is under $3.20. California has high sales and income taxes.

And then there are the regulations that make basic things — such as rebuilding your home after a devastating wildfire — extremely difficult. Lax crime laws allow thieves to steal from stores in broad daylight. Its K-12 education system continues to fail.

No politician ran for office pledging to make California financially inhospitable to middle-class families. No politician voted for a bill that promised dysfunction. It happened anyway.

That’s because good intentions don’t guarantee good results. Good intentions often produce the worst results because they cover up or justify bad policy. A clean environment is a worthy goal. But policies that take such a goal to a ridiculous extreme stifle development and drive up housing costs.

As Nevada’s legislative session winds down, there’s an important lesson for lawmakers in Carson City. Think about the long-term effect of the bills you’re passing. That’s how Nevada can avoid replicating California’s dysfunction.

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