Here’s a piece of good economic news: Forbes magazine has ranked North Carolina as the #2 state in the nation for businesses and careers. Utah came in first. A large part of the magazine’s methodology emphasizes taxation and the regulatory environment, things progressives always insist are negligible factors when it comes to job creation.
Those who don’t like the current direction of the state may well argue that the state has been highly-ranked for years and years, and that our current position is in spite of, not because, of the recent policies enacted by the General Assembly and governor. But it’s hard to take that argument seriously when the state has moved up in the rankings each year since 2013. The only reasonable argument a progressive can make is that Forbes’ methodology is flawed. That might be a discussion worth having – but let’s take it at face value for now and dig a little deeper into the magazine’s rationale.
The state scored best when it came to regulatory environment – #4, behind Virginia, Indiana, and Nebraska. The state with the worst ranking in that regard was West Virginia, which at the state level has been Democratic for forever. For the most part, NC has a relatively “hands off” approach when it comes to regulating businesses, and Forbes thinks that’s a good thing.
We also scored really well when it came to cost of doing business. Our low rate of unionization (lowest in the country) played a huge part here. Ahead of us on that ranking – South Dakota, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Utah. The most expensive place to do business? Massachusetts, followed by New Jersey, Hawaii, New Hampshire, and Vermont.
Dragging us down and possibly keeping us from a #1 ranking overall is our economic climate. The five-year average unemployment rate was 8.7%, well ahead of most states. The unemployment rate is still higher than the national average, but our economic climate can’t be that bad because we still were ranked 22 overall.
Articles like these always come as welcome news to Team McCrory. They make it a little tougher for Team Cooper to depict the state as going backwards after decades of being a progressive paradise. The bottom line is that McCrory and co. have been pursuing a “red state model” – with tangible results. This ranking from Forbes is a vindication of their efforts.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
Forbes is a conservative journal owned by a former Republican presidential candidate. Of course we moved up in their ‘rankings’ when Republicans instituted all the dream issues of libertarian ideologues: They cut taxes on the rich and raised them on the middle class, cut spending on schools, refused billions of federal healthcare dollars and harmed hundreds of thousands of our poorest citizens by refusing to expand medicaid. In what way does that translate into job growth, higher incomes, and a better economy? It doesn’t. They have cost us billions and given away our state to the highest bidder.
Any day now, I expect to read where the state of NC will sell the Biltmore Estate to the Koch brothers to use as one of their personal weekend getaways.
Any validity of this poll is completely undercut by the organization that published it. Forbes Magazine is a corporatist publication founded by the Forbes family, whose entire raison d’etre is to make money that in turn makes money for them. They and the magazine have editorially fought against regulations and government “interference” with business for decades; is it any wonder that they’re going to rate highly a state that in the past four years and gutted every regulation within reach?
Please, Mr. Wynne, we are not in your Republican bubble.
Sorry Mr. Wynne, but liberals think that any news favorable to Republicans should not be posted on this site. Only Democrats’ spin will be tolerated.
Totally agree with you, A.D.
In bathroom parlance, number 2 doesn’t sound very appealing.
The “tangible results” that real people care about are wages and job opportunities. As you acknowledge, our unemployment rate is higher than the national average. It has also been moving in the wrong direction. Furthermore, the few jobs that are being created appear to be disproportionately low-wage and insecure. It doesn’t mean much to live in what a right-leaning magazine calls the “second-best place for business and careers” if your career consists of stringing together low-wage piece work.
But I’m sure the Chief Ribbon Cutter is delighted.
You are absolutely right John, you and your neanderthal, right-wing, corporatists zealots have made this once promising state #1 in the #2 business – and you think that’s something to brag about; Forbes magazine no less, how pathetic!
There are even more positive economic statistics for NC. Data released by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on October 20, 2015 showed major employment gains in NC from September 2014 to September 2015. During that period, employment in NC increased by 107,600. Only California, Florida, New York and Texas had larger increases in employment. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/laus.nr0.htm
And a recent report from the the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S Department of Commerce showed NC ranked 10th in percentage personal income growth from the 2nd quarter of 2014 to the 2nd quarter of 2015. During that period, NC personal income increased by 4.7%, well above the national and regional average. The same report showed the percentage rate of job growth in NC from August ’14 to August ’15 to be 2.6%, which ranked the state10th among the 50 states in the rate of employment growth.
So marked income inequality, giving less priority to environmental quality, presiding over a coal ash disaster, continuing to pay very low teacher salaries, implementing no innovative jobs programs, refusing to even think about raising the minimum wage, increasing regressive taxation, and, as you say, the realities that our “five-year average unemployment rate was 8.7%” and our “unemployment rate is still higher than the national average” all means nothing to you because a conservative, pro-business magazine ranks NC #2 for doing business? Your blinders are on so very tight, Sir…..
I don’t like like McCrory and I especially don’t like the GOP in the NCGA. But this is good news. I am happy about it. And I don’t think this is a holdover from the Democratic days. If deregulation is the metric, then they win. If the GOP in the NCGA wants to stay in power for a generation, they should support public education from K thru College. Doing so will help the state and their image. How they do that and cut taxes is what they have to figure out.
NC’s high ranking for business is because wages in NC are low.
Forbes wrote: “North Carolina moves up one spot to rank second. The Tar Heel State is the only one to appear in the top five every year of our Best States study. North Carolina has the smallest union workforce in percentage terms in the U.S., which keeps costs down. Labor costs are 10% below the national average and fifth lowest in the U.S., according to Moody’s Analytics. The state also boasts a strong labor force and business-friendly incentive, legal and regulatory environments.” [http://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2015/10/21/the-best-states-for-business-and-careers-2015/]
Personally, I don’t think having the 5th lowest labor cost in the US and being 10% below the national average is a good thing.
The American Community Survey by the US Census Department says NC’s median household income dropped 1.7% from 2010-14 while the the US increased by 0.28% if adjusted for inflation to 2014 $. NC’s median household income was 88.95% of the US in 2010 but only 87.19% in 2014. [https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/household/2014/h08.xls]
Occupational Employment Statistics show NC’s estimated median annual wages have dropped by 2.53% from 2010-15 if adjusted for inflation to 2015 $.[http://esesc23.esc.state.nc.us/d4/OESSelection.aspx & http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl%5D
By whatever measurement you want to use, NC wages and income are already low and rapidly dropping under the NCGOP. And although that may be good for business in the short term, it’s not good for NC or NC’s people.
It is easy to make NC economics look good if we don’t include the degraded health and environment that unregulated corporate poison pushers and the extraction faction bring with them. Not to mention lowered IQs, a growing wealth gap, and greater depression among citizens who have lost hope in economic justice or their future.
Of course. NC doesn’t any more of those greedy, polluting, private sector businesses starting up here. What we need is more state government spending. But how will we raise all that tax revenue to support more government spending after we make it clear we are hostile to new business development here? Guess we can just raise taxes on all those rich folks, if there are any still left living here.