Connecticut's Business Environment

This is a letter I sent to the Journal Inquirer

To The Editor,

Enough!  The JI has spent column after column attempting to defend Connecticut’s “business climate” – largely through the use of North Carolina as it’s straw man.  Some simple data would suffice.

I searched the Internet via Google using the search term “business climate by state.”  The first result was to Forbes ranking all 50 states in a list entitled “The Best States for Business and Careers.”  The list ranks the states by the following categories:  Business Costs Index, Labor Supply Rank, Regulatory Environment Rank, Economic Climate Rank, Growth Prospects Rank, and Quality of Life Rank.

Connecticut scored an overall 33 out of 50.  North Carolina scored 4 out of 50.  So it turns out that North Carolina does indeed have a much more friendly business climate.  More important are the individual scores.  The two most significantly in need of improvement in Connecticut are the Business Costs Index and the Regulatory Environment Rank, which Connecticut scored 47 and 39 respectively.  The former indexes things like the cost of labor, energy, and yes, taxes.  The latter ranks things such as labor regulations, healthcare mandates, right to work laws, bond ratings, and the transportation infrastructure.  These are the two areas where Connecticut’s government are getting things wrong, at least as compared to other states.  North Carolina’s rankings are number 2 and 3, respectively.

It should also be noted that Connecticut did score highly on one rating – Quality of Life and was 2^nd in the nation for this metric.  And as the JI points out, this ranking far exceeds North Carolina’s ranking of 32 in the nation.  This would seem to confirm the JI’s supposition that even if Connecticut has a much worse business environment than North Carolina, at least we are not dispensing with our quality of life as it would seem North Carolina has.  However, perhaps a lesson could be learned from the state that ranked the highest in “business climate” of all 50 states?

That state would be Virginia.  It scored 22 on the Business Costs Index, much better than Connecticut, albeit still far from the top.  But Virginia blew Connecticut’s doors off with regard to the regulatory environment.  Virginia scored first in the nation in that category.  Might Connecticut be able to take a lesson from Virginia in that regard?

But all that business success must come at a cost, you ask?  Indeed.  Virginia’s Quality of Life index was below Connecticut’s, scoring only 4^th in the nation compared to Connecticut’s 2^nd place finish.  I would ask the JI this question:  Would you be willing to see Connecticut’s Quality of Life index to drop two places to be the best state in the Union for “business climate”?