The newest edition of the United Van Lines report on the leading outbound and inbound states is out and the news is bad (again) for New Mexico which finds itself among the top-10 “outbound” states for the third year in a row. Check out reports from 2013 and 2012.
See this year’s map below:
Based on historical trends and weather, New Mexico should pretty consistently be on the “inbound” side of things, but public policies seem to push it into the negative time and again.
Interestingly enough, there is a strong correlation in terms of the “right to work” issue: 8 of the 10 leading outbound states are DO NOT have a “right to work” law on the books; and 7 of the 9 leading inbound states are RTW (Washington, DC is listed in the top-10 inbound “states,” but isn’t a state) and given its small size and unique economy, it shouldn’t be considered.
The top inbound states of 2014 were:
Oregon
South Carolina (RTW)
North Carolina (RTW)
Vermont
Florida (RTW)
Nevada (RTW)
Texas (RTW)
Oklahoma (RTW)
Idaho (RTW)
The top outbound states for 2014 were:
New Jersey
New York
Illinois
North Dakota (RTW)
West Virginia
Ohio
Kansas (RTW)
New Mexico
Pennsylvania
Connecticut
Even though NM isn’t a right to work state it still has one of the lowest union memberships of the 50 states at only 7%. In fact Nevada which is a right to work state has double the union membership of NM. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Union_affiliation_by_U.S._state
You are correct. Arguably, if NM had a right to work law we’d have more manufacturing, a stronger private sector economy, and perhaps even more union members. Right to work is not anti-union and we aren’t pushing it as being against unions.
To be fair, Nevada is a unique issue because of the gambling and tourism industries there which are, due to prohibitions in the other 50 state, limited to Nevada, you do have a strong union movement in that particular state…but Nevada is indeed right to work.
Also, you conveniently decided to leave off these outbound, right to work, states: Utah, Mississippi, Michigan and Virginia.
Yes, a majority of outbound states are not right to work and overall, these states have far-higher outbound movement than do right to work states, but that is not always the case. It is notable that Michigan has only been right to work for a year or two. It is not going to turn around overnight.
So the folks from outbound states have destroyed their states only to import their liberal voting history with them.
What is NM doing to salvage Intel. The locals in Corrales have whined forever about Intel while Intel bent over backwards to please the natives. Now Intel will exit and what will happen to the price of our homes? More outbound folks!