CNBC’s “Top States for Business” Puts Maine Near the Bottom

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A few months ago when Forbes released their annual “Best States for Business” ranking showing Maine as dead last in the country, there were a lot of folks who dismissed it simply because the source is biased in their opinion.

Well, let the gnashing of the teeth begin again as I just discovered CNBC’s “Top States for Business” ranking which puts Maine at a lowly 40th in the country.

While some may try to pin CNBC as part of the “great right-wing conspiracy,” maybe the truth is much simplier–Maine has a poor business climate.

Interestingly, the top four states–Virginia, Texas, North Carolina and Georgia–are all right-to-work states . . .

Additionally, the Tax Foundation also just released their annual State Business Tax Climate Index with Maine ranked as only the 37th best in the country.

Keep in mind that none of these indexes reflect any policy changes under Gov. LePage. For instance, the recent reduction in the top marginal income tax rate to 7.95 percent from 8.5 percent will not take effect until 2013. So it will be a few more years before such changes even begin to be reflected in these metrics.