It took the costly collapse of 38 Studios to finally wake
Rhode Island up about its relentless underperforming economy and its
scattershot economic development policies.
And then there was the CNBC state business rankings for 2012, which
placed our state dead last when totaled across a range of competitiveness
measures. Look at the most negative CNBC ratings for the Ocean State:
45 and 46 on the cost of doing business and
workforce, respectively.
49 on our overall economy and 50 on infrastructure and transportation.
49 on business friendliness and 44 and the cost of living
here.
These negatives should be easily recognizable to most of us.
Between the corporate tax rate and a slew of state and municipal regulations
that burden businesses in Rhode Island, the state is a very difficult place to
do business in. Our economy has barely
budged since the downfall of 2008, with the second highest unemployment rate in
the nation.
Our roads and bridges are in terrible shape and we don’t
have the funds to fix them. Because of
our taxes, regulatory burdens and special interest dominated government, we’re
known to be anti-business (only New York state is worst in that category). And
it’s expensive to live here and do business.
This is what everyone who is now coming to a variety of
tables and public forums - and those issuing critical recommendations like
RIPEC and the Rhode Island Foundation, based on extensive fact-finding and
public and private dialogue - is facing when we examine our state and attempt
to come up with a plan to change this depressing reality.
The fact that so much discussion is going on is a most
welcome and needed development and everyone in state government, from the
Governor to the legislature leadership, and through the ranks of the legislature,
should pay close attention.
Carrying this effort through to reality and making
government a partner and not a hindrance to progress is what will really make a
difference in whether we can change those CNBC rankings in time. Because that’s
what we need to test ourselves against. These categories and their rankings
really do count in how our business environment and economic climate is
perceived. They are a true measure of
performance, state by state.
Some of the categories we always do poorly in are within our
power to change. If survey after survey takes us to task for the cost of doing
business here, we need to change that by streamlining regulations and
expediting the approval procedure and process to get things done in a
reasonable amount of time an at less expense. If our workforce is cited as a
negative because of low education levels, poor job skills, and how much we
invest in worker training, then we need to focus on ways to improve those
factors. We can do that. There is no excuse to see the same things cited
against us year after year and remain indifferent to the consequences of those
rankings.
As for our best CNBC rankings, they came in for quality of
life and education. We all know from
living here what a great place Rhode Island is, and that has real economic
value. Our coastline, the variety of our
landscapes, our proximity to Boston and New York, are all enduring assets.
Educationally, we are blessed with a rich lineup of higher education
institutions, and we spend a good amount of money (although with mixed results)
on K-12 public education.
Proof of our positive quality of life and educational
ranking is the fact that Texas, which came in #1 overall in the CNBC business-by-state
survey, fared worse than Rhode Island did in both those categories. In fact,
education and quality of life were its least favorable rankings, along with the
cost of doing business.
Access to capital was Rhode Island’s single best ranking at #10
in the nation. That’s pretty good but let’s hope it wasn’t based on easy access
to taxpayer dollars for insider deals like 38 Studios.
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