PROVIDENCE – Rhode Island has come in dead last on Forbes magazine’s annual list of the best business climates in the country, news that is likely to set off another round of debate about the Ocean State’s economic-development efforts as well as the validity of state-by-state comparisons.
Rhode Island fell to No. 50 this year from No. 45 in both 2008 and 2007 and No. 43 back in 2006. Massachusetts moved up two spots in the rankings to No. 34 this year, with Connecticut right behind the Bay State at No. 35.
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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Forbes ranked the 50 states based on 33 data points in six categories: business costs, the labor supply, the regulatory environment, the current economic climate, growth prospects and quality of life. Most of the data used came from the research firm Moody’s Economy.com. The rankings were published on Wednesday.
Virginia placed first for the fourth year in a row. “Relative to the rest of the country,” Forbes said, “Virginia is booming.” The magazine said the presence of an expanding, educated work force was a common trait shared by top-ranked states, while states that experienced a severe housing boom and bust, like Rhode Island, fell sharply.
Rhode Island was dragged down by particularly poor scores for its regulatory environment – named the nation’s worst – and its current economic climate, which placed at No. 48, trailed only by Vermont (No. 49) and Michigan (No. 50). The latter category was based on each state’s recent growth in jobs, incomes and economic output, as well as their unemployment rates and populations of large firms.
Rhode Island also placed in the bottom half of states for both its business costs (No. 40), which was based on the cost of labor, energy and taxes and was the category Forbes weighted most heavily; and its labor supply (No. 35), which was measured by educational attainment, net migration and projected population growth.
By contrast – and somewhat surprisingly – Rhode Island scored in the top half of states, at No. 18, for its growth prospects – which Forbes based on the state’s projected growth in jobs, incomes and economic output, as well as its rate of net new businesses and venture capital investments.
The state also placed in the top half of states for its quality of life, at No. 21, which was based on an index of schools, health, crime, cost of living and poverty rates.
Among the other New England states, New Hampshire moved up a spot to No. 19 and Maine moved up five places to No. 41.
The complete special report is online at Forbes.com.
Wow, turning this around will be like tuning the Titanic away from an iceberg – with even worse results!
What to do? Lets improve the local economic climate through one of our greatest local strengths: Tourism, Hospitality, Arts & Entertainment by generating revenue and taxes while we stagger back on our feet. Here’s part of that solution:
There’s already a successfully working plan to help make that happen through a simple concept of partnering up with area hotels, local businesses, tourism councils and chambers to ramp up the invitation to Stay, Shop & Dine in RI. (Model program set up in South County, RI.) The hotels play a major role of showcasing local businesses to their clients. And while this plan greatly encourages shopping and dinning locally – it goes even further by encouraging consuming locally made and grown products! Imagine the grassroots impact on our economy and community when implemented on a mass scale.
Each overnight visitation to our states generates and average of $400 in direct spending and subsequent tax distribution. In RI, we have an approximate 65% occupancy rate. Imagine the impact of creating sustainable year round tourism and filling these rooms to near 100% capacity on a consistent basis. The potential ripple effect / trickle up effect for ALL industries in RI is substantial.
We know this aspect is not the end-all-be-all answer to our economic dilemma. We certainly can’t sustain our economy a majority of service jobs… however, we can certainly create enough community wealth to sustain ourselves until RI’s ‘next big industry’ kicks in. I’m suggesting we rally around this plan until that happens
We’ve had some great success so far with this program. And we’re fortunate to have such a strong infrastructure in place to instantly capitalize on this industry. As president of the End Hunger Foundation, and sales representative of Southern RI Newspapers, I’m working to keep this plan afloat – and I do need major support from the business community as a whole to keep it functioning.
Please contact me at 401-368-1325 or endhunger@cox.net to see what role you may have in this solution.
Thanks in advance for your attention and consideration.
Best, Steve Maciel
Well, thanks Steve.
We here at BetterStream are doing our part too, to monetize the arts at BetterStream.com, and in a month, we’ll have RhodeIslandArts.com, an exclusive network for Rhode Island artists to publish all of their work for sale. This is what Rhode Island’s needed for so long. Artists of the Van Gogh caliber live in Rhode Island and can’t eat because there’s currently no outlet for art products, despite the numerous inlets. But that’s all history as that outlet is coming within the month and artists will be able to sell albums, paintings, films, sculptures, handmade clothing and jewelry and everything else via a state-of-the-art web portal.
Yours,
Benjamin Ligeri (aka, “B”)