Recent stories in newspapers and on websites have sparked a debate over why people are leaving Connecticut. According to the most recent census data and actual tax filings: More people left Connecticut from 2013 to 2014 than moved in.
About 26,000 more people left Connecticut than moved in between July 2013 and July 2014, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. Including births, deaths and international migration, the state’s overall population dropped by 2,664 people.
The net migration to other states was .73 percent, which might seem like a small percentage of the state’s overall population of 3.5 million. But it was the fourth highest percentage loss after Alaska, New York and Illinois.
As a result, we lost net income to 41 states, a considerable factor when it comes to explaining why our state’s fiscal health has deteriorated.
I recently spoke to a former Connecticut resident who is now living in Florida and had penned an op-ed in a state newspaper. He explained in his piece that he was a member of what he called the East Coast Lunch Club, a loose group of ex-Connecticut patriots who have relocated. He mused that he has more friends in Florida now than he had in Connecticut.
In 2013 Connecticut lost net income of $1.1 billion to Florida.
He and his friends, he said, were not millionaires or billionaires who could choose to live anywhere. They were hard working, largely middle class people who wanted to escape Connecticut’s cold winters and high taxes.
We can’t do anything about the cold weather but we sure could address the rest of the items on his list.