CNBC’s “Top States for Business” Puts Maine Near the Bottom
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.
Sea Dog
Posted on Feb 19, 2012
Scott - if Maine were the 'Best State for Business' - it would no longer be the haven to live in which it is. There's a reason I didn't move to Virginia, Texas, North Carolina, nor Georgia - but there's no anchor tied to your butt preventing you from moving there.
Trophy Transport
Posted on Mar 23, 2012
I agree, Maine's Business Climate is poor. My personal issue is with the extremely high cost of Workers Comp. If I move out of Maine, as the other poster suggests, I will take with me 23 high paying jobs. My business is very portable (Transportation). I could do a lot better I believe in other parts of the country where workman's comp may be purchased at a flat rate per month, and where there are no excise taxes required to register vehicles. Our annual registration costs in Maine on a number of relatively new Tractor Trailers is almost double that of my competitors in any other state. This is due to the excise taxes required to be paid to the town prior to paying the standard interstate registration costs. It is for this very reason that most of Maine's large Trucking Companies have there vehicles registered in other states such as New Jersey etc. All they need are mailing addresses and utility bills from that state to qualify. This saves them many thousands of dollars per year. We smaller companies do not have that luxury. They are also hiring drivers in those other states. How can this be good for Maine?