CEOs Nationwide Rank Florida #2 State for Business

May 17, 2017

ORLANDO, Fla. (May 9, 2016) – Chief Executive Magazine today named Florida the #2 state for business in its 2016 Best & Worst States for Business issue. Chief Executive asked 513 CEOs to rank states they are familiar with on the friendliness of their tax and regulatory regime, workforce quality and living environment. Florida again moved up in qualitative measures this year. The Sunshine State added 1 million private-sector jobs over the last five years, cut taxes 50 times and got rid of 4,200 burdensome regulations.

The survey asked CEOs to consider three criteria: Taxes and Regulations, Workforce Quality and Living Environment. In most companies, the CEO makes the ultimate decisions about where to locate and/or expand the business, making his or her perceptions of each state critically important.

More than 500 CEOs complete the detailed survey every year during the first quarter. CEOs are asked to provide their selections for the 4 best states for doing business and the 4 worst states for doing business. Points are assigned to each state each time they are cited as a top 4 state.

Chief Executive also asks CEOs to provide ratings for the states they rank, as well as for other states for which they have opinions, along 3 key criteria: 1) taxes and regulations, 2) workforce quality and 3) living environment. They are asked to rate the states on these criteria using a 1-10 scale, with 10 = outstanding, 5= average and 1= poor.

Each of these criteria incorporates multiple variables:
Taxation and Regulations
– State income tax and corporate tax rates
– Perceived attitude of government to business
– Degree of employment compliance regulations
– Degree of environmental compliance regulations
– Tax incentives for locating in this state

Workforce Quality
– Cooperative employee-management relationship
– Employee work ethic
– General education level of workforce
– Competitiveness of wage rates
– Availability of workforce with specialized experience/education

Living Environment
– Crime rate
– Quality of public education
– Public health and hospitals
– Real estate costs
– Transportation access
– Arts and cultural institutions

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