La. most improved for business: CEOs

Chief executive officers from across the nation have named Louisiana the most improved state for doing business in the United States.

According to Chief Executive magazine Louisiana’s business environment boosted from being 27th in 2011 to 13 in 2012. This was the largest survey leap of any state.

In its annual survey, Chief Executive asked participants to grade states where they conduct business based on living environment, regulatory environment, taxes and workforce quality.

Competitive improvements that work in favor of improving states include competitive corporate tax structures and turnkey workforce programs. For Louisiana, benefits also listed were education and pension reform.

This year Texas ranked No. 1 for doing business, according to the publication, while California finished at No. 50.

Texas held its top spot as a continuation from 2011, while the remaining five best states for business included No. 2 Florida moving up from No. 3 last year by switching positions with North Carolina in the new report. Tennessee maintained a No. 4 spot this year from 2011, and Indiana finished No. 5, up from No. 6 one year earlier.

California made a repeat performance as the worse state for business from 2011. New York held its spot at No. 49 and Illinois held steady at No. 48. The 47th worst state for business this year is Massachusetts dropping from No. 45, but Michigan held the No. 46 position for a second year.

Along with Louisiana improving by 14 points, other gainers included Mississippi, from 38 to 30, and West Virginia, from 42 to 34, each improving by eight points.

The most positions lost by any state went to Oregon with a nine-point decline from No. 33 to No. 42.

“Although often eclipsed by Texas, its next door neighbor, Louisiana, is the Cinderella of business improvement,” the Chief Executive report said. “In 2006, it ranked 47th – where Massachusetts is today. … Katrina didn’t help matters. But since then it has climbed steadily up the ranks so that it is now 13th – up from 27th last year – the biggest leap in a single year of any state.”

Not everyone willing accepted the Chief Executive results. “Interesting that the states with the best rankings here have the lowest per capita incomes [and] highest poverty rates,” Martin Waymire Advocacy Communications spokesman David Waymire said on Facebook.

“[I]n the case of Texas, [that state has] one of the highest percentages of people with no health insurance,” Waymire said. “Also by and large [top ranking states have] a history of lax environmental regulation, contributing to the fact that residents of these highly ranked states also tend to have shorter life spans. Meanwhile, look at where CEOs choose to live based on the number of millionaires per 100,000 persons … they live in the states that have low rankings. California, New York, New Jersey, Conn[ecticut], Mass[achusetts]. So, the bottom line: Make your state a place where CEOs like to put their business and you can expect a poor quality of life and low paychecks. Make your state a place where CEOs like to live, and you can expect a better quality of life, higher paychecks and a longer life. How do people take this stuff seriously?”

“CEO’s tell us that California seems to be doing everything possible to drive business from the state,” Chief Executive Editor-in-Chief J.P. Donlon said in a prepared statement. Donlon added that incentives from local economic development corporations and relaxed regulatory environments have proven good for business. It is inhospitable business environments, the publication noted, that translates into fewer jobs.