Maybe the nation’s CEOs don’t watch enough TV, or perhaps they lack a sufficient appreciation for Jay-Z and Alicia Keys.
Whatever the reason, respondents to Chief Executivemagazine’s ninth annual survey of ”Best and Worst States for Business“ ranked New York among the worst at 49th, unchanged from last year. Other bottom-dwellers included California (#50), Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Connecticut. The top-rated states: Texas, Florida, North Carolina and Tennessee.
Chief Executive reported that its ninth annual survey received 736 responses from CEOs, the highest number ever.
“Business leaders were asked to grade states with which they are familiar on a variety of competitive metrics that CEOs themselves regard as critical. These include: 1) taxation and regulation; 2) quality of workforce; and 3) living environment. The tax and regulatory grade includes a measure of how CEOs grade a state’s attitude toward business, a key indicator.”
New York got a single star for Taxes and Regulations, three stars for Quality of Workforce, and two-and-a-half stars for Living Environment. Texas, by contrast, received four stars in the first two categories and three-and-a-half stars in the third. (Unfortunately for Albany, there was no ranking for Most Money Spent on a Ubiquitous Business Marketing Campaign.)
Among northern states most like New York, Ohio had the greatest improvement in the magazine’s survey over the past year, moving up 13 places to #22 in the Chief Executive rankings. “Ohio has made a dramatic turnaround under Republican leadership,” one reader commented. CEO comments on the New York page were less positive, including the following:
“New York’s taxes on the job creators is broken and taxing authorities are too bureaucratic – a glimpse of everything bad in the federal government.”
“New York headed in the right direction, but still way behind other states.”
“No matter how good the people and the weather are, activist departments of revenue, lots of regulations, and high taxes make states like CA and NY bad options, always.”
“Given New York’s onerous tax regulations, we are seriously going to consider whether we allow employees to travel to or participate in events in that state. We can’t afford for NY to become a tax nexus for us just because our employees participate in a conference in NY or the like.”
“New York and New Jersey have high costs of doing business and favor local companies to a greater extent than other states favor their local companies.”
About the Author
You may also like
At mid-year, NY still far below most states in pandemic jobs recovery
New York has added private-sector jobs in all but three of the 38 months since the COVID-19 outbreak of March 2020—but the Empire State remains below its pre-pandemic employment level and continues to trail the national recovery.
On a seasonally adju Read More
At end of ’22, NY still near bottom in pandemic recovery
The more time passes since the spring 2020 Covid-19 outbreak, the more New York stands out among all states for the weakness of its post-pandemic employment recovery.
As of December, seasonally adjusted private employment in New York was still nearly 2 Read More
As leaves turn, NY’s post-pandemic recovery still has very far to go
New York was the national epicenter of the pandemic, and Governor Cuomo's "New York State on PAUSE" business shutdowns and other restrictions led, in short order, to the loss of nearly 2 million jobs in the first full month after the infection began spreading in the New York City area. Read More
More NY job gains in August—but employment needs to rise a lot further
New York's jobs report for August looked relatively strong—but only by comparison, that is, with what was generally regarded as a disappointing national number. On a seasonally adjusted basis, New York gained 28,000 private-sector jobs last month—a growth rate of 0.4 percent, according to preliminary monthly estimates from the state Labor Department. Read More
NY Post-Pandemic Employment Tide Stopped Rising At Year’s End
New York's post-pandemic employment recovery came to a halt and moved into reverse in December, according to the state's for the final month of COVID-wracked 2020.
Private payroll employment in December was 966,000 jobs below the level of the previous Read More
Fewer Workers, Not More Jobs, Explains NY’s September Unemployment Rate Drop
New York State's unemployment rate has fallen sharply since the economically devastating pandemic lockdown last spring. But as state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli points out in his latest economic report, the jobless rate doesn't tell the whole story. Read More
It’s Official: New York State’s Second Quarter Economic Crash Was the Worst on Record
Further evidence of the massive damage done to New York’s economy by the coronavirus pandemic shutdown has emerged in the latest gross domestic product (GDP) data from the federal Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Affairs. Read More
Sluggish Reopening: NY’s Private Job Count Down 1.1 Million From Pre-Pandemic Level
Six months into the novel coronavirus pandemic, New York State's private-sector employment recovery was the slowest in the 48 contiguous states—and getting slower. Read More