Recently released population figures do not paint an improving picture for our county and region. According to the Empire Center figures — over the last nine years — all of our municipalities are losing residents.
Almost as concerning is the entities that are losing the most are not always the most troubled. When you consider cities and villages, the leading losses are: Westfield, -6.8%; Silver Creek and Fredonia, -6.5%; Dunkirk, -6.1%; with Brocton, Sinclairville and Cherry Creek all tallying losses of more than 5%.
Towns with the greatest losses of 6% or more included: Stockton, Westfield and Pomfret. The town with the least amount of population loss was one of the county’s smallest. Arkwright lost 2.2% of its residents over the last nine years.
Unfortunately, this trend of population decreases does nothing to change the outlook by too many governments. While we have seen a couple of dissolutions in Forestville and Cherry Creek, most municipalities continue to cling to what they have, passing on the tax burden to fewer residents.
New York state and Albany are not responsible for this mindset. Instead, it is local stubborn values that drive up property taxes for those who choose to remain.
Judging by the Empire Center numbers, those residents are much fewer.
© 2019 Observer Today
You may also like
Despite all the renaissance talk, the numbers tell a different story
“The upstate rural areas are declining in population; the small cities and villages are also declining. The larger upstate cities are declining the least or increasing slightly, which is presumably due to the foreign immigration, which is refugee resettlement,” says E. J. McMahon, director of research at the Empire Center. Read More
Ballston and Halfmoon state’s fastest-growing towns
"The Capital District has some of the more extreme (population changes) in the state," said E.J. McMahon, research director at the Empire Center for Public Policy, who has analyzed the figures. "Saratoga County is one of just two counties in upstate that is growing from in-migration of people." Read More
These are the top 10 states people are moving out of
E.J. McMahon, the research director for the Empire Center for Public Policy, told the Post that "much more needs to be done to improve the basic climate for economic growth."
"It's just not dynamic enough to hold more of its people," McMahon said. Read More
Split New York 3 ways? Assemblyman’s petition has new approach to carving up NY
“Upstate would need to do a really significant reset of the way government is funded and what it spends, and upstate politicians have not exactly been clamoring for the reforms that it would take to make that happen,” said E.J. McMahon of the Albany-based Empire Center for Public Policy, a conservative think tank.
Read More
New Yorkers fleeing for Florida more than any other state
There has also been declining enrollment at New York's public colleges, mainly at its community colleges. At public schools, the 2.6 million students is the lowest in nearly 30 years, according to the Empire Center for New York State Policy. Read More
Niagara County high on list as fresh census data documents upstate’s shrinking population
The weak population numbers for upstate continues a pattern that has played out for at least a decade, said E.J. McMahon, research director for the Empire Center for Public Policy, an Albany think tank.
"The rural areas are the weakest," McMahon said. "The upstate decline is continuing. It's not much different from the picture we have been seeing and the same components are causing it: the combination of domestic migration losses in every county but two (Saratoga and Ontario), low foreign immigration and more births than deaths in a lot of rural counties. You put that all together and you have a population decline." Read More
Cuomo claims Buffalo has seen a surge in young people
E.J. McMahon, research director of the conservative Empire Center think tank, also said that while the population of young people increased, it’s unclear how many of those people came back to Buffalo. Some of the gains could be because people stayed, or they could be from refugee resettlement programs, McMahon said. Read More
Million-dollar earners in New York fell as concerns grow over rich leaving to other states
Cuomo's claims are likely overstating the immediate impact of the deduction cap, said E.J. McMahon, founder of the Empire Center, a fiscally conservative think tank in Albany.
It's simply too soon to know if people have fled the state because of the so-called SALT cap, McMahon said. Read More
Enjoying our work? Sign up for email alerts on our latest news and research.