ALBANY, N.Y.- Every year, tens of thousands of New Yorkers uproot their families and move out of state. Now some state lawmakers want an official commission to figure out why.

Here’s the problem:
Two years ago, 21,186 New Yorkers moved to Massachusetts; 44,807 went to Pennsylvania; 50,670 to Connecticut; 75,103 to New Jersey; and 91,201 to Florida.

Last year, 101,000 New Yorkers moved out of state.

“We know the reasons – affordability, public safety, infrastructure, nursing home staffing,” said State Sen. James Tedisco.

Tedisco represents the areas north of Albany. He sponsors a bill that “Establishes the New York state commission on out-migration.”

“You contacted me because we want a commission to stop the outflow,” he said in a zoom interview. “That has to happen every day, or every single day or every week. We have to hold their feet to the fire.”

Governor Kathy Hochul’s office emailed writing, “Governor Hochul will review all legislation that passes both the Senate and Assembly.”

“You know what? It’s not hard getting used to sunshine,” said Steve Audin from his home in central Arizona.
  
In 2020, Audin moved his family from Gates to Coolidge, Arizona. He moved even though his youngest child was still in high school. His Arizona house is bigger. His Arizona taxes are lower.

“I do miss the food and family and friends. And I miss the water. There’s water everywhere in Rochester and you don’t even realize it until you don’t have it, you know?” he said. “(But) in my house in Gates we were paying $7,400 a year in taxes. And out here my house is twice as big as what we had there and my taxes are $1,400 and change here.”

Audin says he likes the gun laws too.

“And I see a lot of people carrying, like open carrying and believe it or not, I feel safer,” he said.
 
David Hatch is from Rush. I reached him on the coast of North Carolina where he’s building a new home.

“The biggest driver for me has been, we’ve been talking about this for years, is our property taxes are just so darn expensive,” Hatch said.
  
While Hatch and Audin moved to warm states, the data shows a lot of people who leave New York stay in the northeast.

“There are a number of states that have cold weather situations and they’re growing. New York State is not growing,” Sen. Tedisco said. “So the purpose of this commission across the state with those hearings in every region is to light a fire.”

The governor’s office told me the governor vetoed all bills last year that created task forces and commissions primarily because they were redundant to work already going on in state agencies.