CEOs: Best and Worst States to Do Business

Chief Executive's fifth annual survey asked 543 CEOs to evaluate their states on a broad range of issues, including proximity to resources, regulation, tax policies, education, quality of living and infrastructure. Providing additional insight to the evaluations, CEOs were also asked to grade each state based on the following criteria: 1) Taxation & Regulation, 2) Workforce Quality, and 3) Living Environment.

“Our survey, year-over-year proves that those states with the worst records continue to practice the same policies that alienate businesses,” said JP Donlon, Editor-in-Chief of Chief Executive magazine. “As the nation’s economic problems continue to snowball and an increasing number of states experience budgetary problems, state governments ought to take a hard look at their taxation and unionization policies if they want to turn the page and attract new businesses and capital to their provinces.”

Once again, this year, the same states that took the bottom five spots over the past few years preserved their rankings for the most part. For the fourth year in a row, California and New York were ranked the worst and second worst state to do business in, respectively. Michigan was ranked third from the bottom for the second year in a row. Plaguing business growth and opportunities in these states are high business taxes exposed on business owners as well as a strongly unionized labor force.

One CEO said, “Michigan and California literally need to do a 180 if they are ever to become competitive again. California has huge advantages with its size, quality of work force, particularly in high tech, as well as the quality of life and climate advantages of the state. However, it is an absolute regulatory and tax disaster, as is Michigan.”

MP: What do the top 9 states (TX, NC, FL, GA, TN, NV, VA, AZ and SC) have in common? What do the bottom 7 states (CA, NY, MI, NJ, MA, IL, and OH) have in common? Check map here to find out.