State of Small Business in Washington
January 17th, 2008 by Republican By DefaultIn governor Gregoire’s State of the State address on Tuesday night she mentioned that Forbes magazine ranked Washington the forth best state in the U.S. in which to do business. (h/t Business Examiner Daily and AWB)
“Forbes magazine, the flagship of American business media, recently highlighted how we are breaking down barriers by cutting red tape and paperwork, starting one-stop licensing, and providing small business help.”
“That’s just one of the reasons Forbes now ranks us among the five best states to do business in the country!”
However, this doesn’t tell the whole story.
The Washington, DC based Corporation for Enterprise Development, which rates and ranks states in numerous categories that affect business, gave Washington State and ‘F’ in it’s competitiveness of existing business rating ranking it 47th. Not exactly high praise.
The individual rating / rankings that went into this failing grade are:
Strength of Traded Sector - 10th place
Business Closings - 50th place… that’s dead last
Manufacturing Investment - 48th place
Industrial Diversity - 35th place
Politicians like to paint the picture as pretty as they can, but sometimes, it’s not the real picture.
