EDITORIAL: Colorado welcomes the world while Americans move elsewhere | Editorials

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Looks like the defenders of Colorado’s reckless sanctuary policies got their wish: Our state now draws more people from abroad than from within our nation’s borders.

That’s a key finding in a new report released this week by Colorado’s Common Sense Institute — and it’s doubly troubling.

It underscores our state’s allure to people who have entered the U.S. illegally and, too often, have become wards of Colorado’s state and local taxpayers.

At the same time, it is an alarming reminder of how Colorado no longer is a draw for those who once came here in droves — American workers and businesses looking to relocate. They now are put off by Colorado’s soaring cost of living and declining business climate.

”Colorado's boom economy was built in large part on a booming population growth," Kelly Caufield, the think tank’s executive director, said in a news release accompanying the study.

"Colorado is no longer the destination it once was,” she said. “It’s no longer a top-10 spot for movers. It's gaining more people from international migration than from domestic migration.”

Indeed, Colorado ranked only 16th among the states for its growth due to in-migration from other U.S. states plus in-state childbirths in 2023, according to the institute’s numbers. That’s out of the 30 states that had experienced a net increase. Our state’s population increased by 36,571 people last year, reaching 5.878 million as of the latest tally.

Our reversal of fortune is jarring. Colorado had ranked in the top 10 for migration from other states through the 2010s, and was second in the nation back in 2015.

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The Common Sense study found that of the nearly 900,000 people who change states, 53% went to Florida, Texas or North Carolina, with Florida and Texas each getting more than 20% of movers. Only 0.8% of the movers chose to move to Colorado — which lost more people to Nevada than to any other state, followed by Oklahoma, Wyoming and Arkansas.

Notice the pattern? States that outdraw Colorado — including Nevada, Wyoming and, of course, Florida and Texas — have at least one thing in common: far lower housing costs. The price of real estate and rents undercut Colorado’s by a long shot.

A painfully familiar array of factors is driving up our housing costs and cost of living in general. They range from green-energy mandates on home construction to liability laws that set up homebuilders for crippling lawsuits over even minor construction defects. It puts a damper on the construction of condos and other entry-level, affordable housing.

The litany of factors clouding our state’s business climate is also well known. Among them are wave after wave of new regulations hamstringing the production of oil and gas — historically, one of the state biggest creators of high-paying jobs. The Legislature also has been piling on ever more mandates on employers that purport to protect workers but wind up suffocating job creation.

Meanwhile, Coloradans also are wearily familiar with what draws illegal immigration to our state over and above so many other states: state and local sanctuary policies that invite inundation. State policies tie law enforcement’s hands in cooperating with federal immigration officials — while local policies like Denver’s essentially provide illegal immigrants room, board and health care.

It’s no surprise the Common Sense study found that Colorado gained more people from international migration than domestic migration in 2022 and 2023.

Our state is generous to the world while turning off fellow Americans — and handing our taxpayers the tab. Something’s got to give. The Common Sense study is a wake-up call.

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EDITORIAL: Colorado welcomes the world while Americans move elsewhere | Editorials

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