Golden State Exodus: One Taxpayer Lost Every 104 Seconds

By Ward Clark | 1:00 PM on November 24, 2025

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California Flag. (Credit: Wiki Commons/Public Domain)
In the time it takes you to read this story, California will have lost several more taxpayers.

Oh, yes, this is stretching statistics just a tad. Noting that, for example, the rate of taxpayers fleeing California comes to, say, 60 per hour, that doesn't mean that 1 person is leaving every minute, like a clock ticking. But there sure as heck is a clock ticking for California, as their impeccably coiffed Governor Newsom and the Democrat-controlled state legislature is now reaping what they have sown, with the exodus of the productive from the once-Golden State.


Over the weekend, we learned that the Golden State loses one taxpayer to another state every minute, and faces an $18 billion budget shortfall, which is $5 billion higher than was projected just a few months ago.
We also learned that only now, 10 months after wildfires destroyed thousands of buildings in the Los Angeles area, has the first home been rebuilt.
These stories are yet more evidence of a completely dysfunctional state captured by ideologues who couldn’t care less about the harm their policies cause. Will voters there ever learn?
Yes, the voters are in part to blame for this, but we should note that not all the voters of California voted for this doom spiral. There are many Republicans and right-leaning independents in California, many of whom love their home state, aren't happy with what's happening to it, and who are working and fighting to turn it around. But the California legislature has managed to rig the election system to freeze out any opposition, and now California counts the cost.
The National Taxpayers Union Foundation used IRS data to calculate how many taxpayers are moving into and out of states each year.
What it found was stunning. California is losing taxpayers at a rate of one every 1 minute 44 seconds – the fastest of any state in the nation. That amounts to billions in lost tax revenue every year.
Florida, in contrast, is gaining taxpayers at a rate of one every 2 minutes 9 seconds.


It's not a pretty situation.
This is a national issue; here's a chart from the linked article:



Ward Clark
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12:40 PM · Nov 24, 2025


Note that, California, Texas, and Florida notwithstanding, this isn't a pure red vs. blue issue. Some pale blue states that are proximate to deep-blue states are seeing influxes of people who look across one state line and see things being a little bit better; this likely explains how, for example, the increase in Wisconsin's population may be at the expense of Illinois and Minnesota. Ditto for New Hampshire and Vermont vs. Massachusetts.
But overall, it's the red states, most especially Texas, Florida, Tennessee, and Arizona, that are becoming popular.
California presents the real cautionary tale. This is what unchecked Democrat rule looks like. This is what the left does: They consolidate control, they control the electoral system, they sell votes by promising more and more free Schiff, and they drive the productive away. California has been subsumed by leftist ideology. The once-Golden state has the nation's highest population of homeless people. California has the highest population on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. California has the highest population of illegal aliens.


Productive people are leaving. And it won't be reversed while Democrats hold the supermajority in the state legislature and the governor's office. And, given this exodus of the productive, which leaves behind the wealthy coastal elites, the homeless, and the dependency class, what odds are there of the once-Golden State changing?
Editor’s Note: Thanks to President Trump’s leadership and bold policies, America’s economy is back on track.

Golden State Exodus: One Taxpayer Lost Every 104 Seconds – RedState