BOSTON — Construction establishment growth in Massachusetts has effectively flatlined — growing just 0.6% since the first quarter of 2022, compared to 7.2% nationally.

That's not a gap. That's a 12-to-1 ratio. For every new construction business that opens in Massachusetts, a dozen open somewhere else.

The timing is brutal. Governor Maura Healey and Mayor Michelle Wu have both doubled down on climate mandates that add cost to every new building. Wu's 218-page climate action plan includes Net Zero Carbon Zoning requiring new buildings to emit net-zero from opening day, BERDO compliance deadlines for thousands of existing buildings, and a push to eliminate fossil fuels from new construction.

The construction industry isn't shrinking because people stopped needing buildings. It's shrinking because Massachusetts has made building too expensive, too complicated, and too risky. And the states that haven't — Florida, Texas, North Carolina, even New Hampshire — are growing their construction sectors at rates Massachusetts can only watch from a distance.

Idaho, the fastest-growing state for total establishments at 58.1%, has been cutting or simplifying over 95% of its state regulations since 2019. Massachusetts added a surtax on high earners, hiked developer fees, and layered on climate mandates.

The results speak for themselves: 0.6% versus 7.2%. Twelve times slower than the country. And the mandates keep coming.