Youngstown Daily Legal News

Survey of business executives ranks Ohio in top 10 for doing business

BRANDON KLEIN
Special to the Legal News
Published: June 12, 2018

Ohio moved up a rank to become one of the top 10 states to do business this year, according to a survey released this month.

The state is now ranked 10th in the Chief Executive magazine's 14th annual 2018 Best & Worst States For Business.

The results are based on the perceptions of 300 chief executive officers, on a range of significant issues, according to the publication's press release.

"CEOs are the key decision-makers that decide when and where companies create jobs," said Chris Chalk, publisher of Chief Executive magazine and ChiefExecutive.net, in a statement. "This year's survey shows that business-friendly policies have a direct impact on the reputation of each state, ultimately determining which states thrive."

Ohio ranked No. 21 in workforce quality category, No. 23 in taxes and regulation and No. 25 in living environment.

The publication focused more on the top and bottom states along with states that moved up or down several ranks in the middle.

Texas topped the list for the 14th straight year, while Florida was the runner up for the sixth consecutive year. North Carolina and South Carolina tied for third and Indiana came in fifth.

On the other hand, California was ranked the worst state for business, followed by New York, Illinois, New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

But the magazine noted these are exact same positions each of the states have occupied in each survey over the last four years.

In the middle, some states moved up several ranks such as Rhode Island which jumped 10 spots to No. 32, while Michigan gained nine spots, up to No. 27. But Nebraska fell six spots to No. 26 and Idaho dropped by 10 to No. 28.

"Generally those performing best and worst stay there because the states don't see significant leadership changes," Larry Gigerich, managing director of Fishers, Ind.-based Ginovus, an economic development consultancy, told the publication. "They have a philosophy about how to approach the business climate and economic development. There's more opportunity in the middle states for a change of leadership because those places tend to flip more philosophically, between parties or within parties."

In Ohio, the state legislature has been mostly under Republican control from 1992 to the present.

The Democrats controlled the Ohio House from 2009 to 2010 and controlled the governor office from 2007 to 2010 under former Gov. Ted Strickland's administration.

In addition, the top states generally recognize the importance of business-friendly cultures, while the bottom states have high-tax, high-cost environments have economical "legacy advantages" because of their strong education and health care systems and because they attract millennials, according the report.

Travis York, who heads GYK Antler, a mid-market ad agency with offices in Massachusetts, told the publication that the overcrowding of people and businesses has inflated costs.

"That's made it hyper-competitive and, frankly, hard to get around," he said.

The full results of the survey can be found on www.chiefexecutive.net.

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