Editors at Issues and Insights ponder population trends in the Golden State under Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Over the weekend, we came across two stories about California that, combined, tell you just about everything you need to know about this one-party state.
One, from the Daily Signal, carried the headline “Homeless Up 20% Under Newsom.” The other, which appeared in Fox News, said that “California is Losing Billions in Taxpayer Income.”
The first story noted that, despite spending $37 billion – with a “b” – to “fight” homelessness, the homeless population increased by 20% from 2019 to 2025, according to data from the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Actually, Newsom’s record is worse than that because, in his first year in office, the number shot up by more than 10,000. So if you compare 2025 to 2018, the increase in the homeless population is closer to 40%.
Either way, it’s a monumental failure. In June, the Trump administration tried to cut off federal housing aid to California amid allegations of rampant fraud in its homeless program.
While the homeless are moving into California, companies and jobs and families are packing up and moving out.
From 2020 through 2025, 1.6 million more people fled California than moved in. No other state saw that dramatic of an exodus. (A huge influx of legal and illegal immigrants offset most of these departures, but even so, the state’s population is 200,000 lower than it was in 2020.)
Where did they go? To states such as Arizona, Texas, Florida, and others that have kept their governments in check, their taxes low, the quality of their education high, and that welcome businesses instead of treating them like the enemy.
And in the second story that caught our eye this weekend, IRS data show that all these California refugees took their tax dollars with them. In just one year, 2023, the state lost billions of dollars in tax revenue from people who moved out.
