Slow growth v. Fast growth cities

Interesting story today from Daily Ticker via Yahoo on the fastest and slowest-growing cities in America. I’ve taken the liberty of posting the top and bottom 10 below:

Top 10 Fastest-growing

1. Midland, Texas 5.8%

2. Greeley, Colorado 4.8%

3. St. George, Utah 4.6%

4. Provo-Orem, Utah 4.6%

5. Naples-Marco Island, Florida 4.5%

6. Austin-Round Rock-San Marcos, Texas 4.4%

7. Raleigh-Cary, North Carolina 4.3%

8. Laredo, Texas 4.3%

9. Palm Coast, Florida 4.3%

10. Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers, Ark.-Mo. 4.2%

Top 10 Slowest-Growing

1. Binghampton, New York 1.0%

2. Utica-Rome, New York 1.0%

3. Pine Bluff, Arkansas 1.3%

4. Johnstown, Pennsylvania 1.3%

5. Atlantic City-Hammonton, New Jersey 1.4%

6. Danville, Virginia 1.4%

7. Beaumont-Port Arthur, Texas 1.4%

8. Kingston, New York 1.4%

9. Elmira, New York 1.5%

10. Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York 1.5%

Notably, nine of the top 10 are cities in right to work states. Only Colorado is not (they have some other nifty pro-taxpayer protections). Seven of the bottom 10 cities are in forced-unionism states. Also, half of the top-10 cities are in states that both have no personal income tax and are right to work. Beaumont-Port Arthur is the only city in the bottom 10 located in such a state.

Correlation may not be causation, but eventually enough different data points should lead policymakers to wonder why states (and cities in states) that have adopted right to work and zero income tax consistently outperform their high-tax, forced-unionism peers.