What Is Texas Doing that We’re Not?
by Ashley Muchow CNBC recently came out with their 2010 ranking of America’s Top States for Business. This year, the Lone Star State earned its title as America’s foremost state for business. Illinois managed to remain in the bottom half, dropping from #25 last year to #30. CBNC calculates the rankings based on ten categories reflective of the strain or...
by Ashley Muchow
CNBC recently came out with their 2010 ranking of America’s Top States for Business. This year, the Lone Star State earned its title as America’s foremost state for business. Illinois managed to remain in the bottom half, dropping from #25 last year to #30. CBNC calculates the rankings based on ten categories reflective of the strain or ease of doing business in each state.
After comparing Illinois and Texas’ respective scores, it appears some of the greatest disparities rest in the economy, workforce, and business friendliness parameters measured by CNBC.
Okay, okay, but what do these scores and rankings measure anyway? Workforce? Economy? Business Friendliness? While I suggest you immerse yourself in the expanded explanations found on the CNBC website, here’s a brief breakdown.
The workforce category looks at the education level of the state’s workforce, number of available workers, relative success of the state’s worker training programs in placing participants in jobs, and union membership. The report states that, “while organized labor contends that a union workforce is a quality workforce, that argument, more often than not, doesn’t resonate with business.” The economy measurement works out basic indicators of economic health and growth. Business friendliness delves deeper into perceived “friendliness” of the state’s legal and regulatory frameworks to business.
Some things to consider:
• Texas does not have a corporate income tax, unlike Illinois’s 7.3%. Texas collects a small corporate franchise tax.
• The minimum wage in Texas is set at $7.25. Illinois’s minimum wage stands at $8.25 today.
Seems somewhat restrictive, no?
• Texas’s budget gap projected for 2011 is at $4.6 billion, while Illinois projects $13.5 billion.
• The foreclosure rate for May of this year is 1 in 350 households in Illinois, and only 1 in 862 in Texas.
Our economic performance is certainly not on par with the Texans.
• The unemployment rate in Illinois is 10.8%, while Texas is looking at 8.3%.
Workforce measures seem remarkably dissimilar.