California Business Minute™

Hi, I am Tim Johnson and welcome to the California Business Minute.

Chief Executive Officers magazine's has just released their annual "Best & Worst States" survey. 
The survey measures CEOs' on the best and worst places for jobs and business growth.

The survey asked 543 CEOs to evaluate their states on a broad range of issues, including proximity
to resources, regulation, tax policies, education, quality of living and infrastructure. Providing
additional insight to the evaluations, CEOs were also asked to grade each state based on the
following criteria: 1) Taxation & Regulation, 2) Workforce Quality, and 3) Living Environment.

Once again, this year, the same states that took the bottom five spots over the past few years
preserved their rankings for the most part. For the fourth year in a row, California and New York
were ranked 50th and 49th to do business in, respectively. Michigan was ranked 48th from the
bottom for the second year in a row. The only difference in the bottom five was a flip in the worst
fourth and fifth states, as New Jersey took over Massachusetts as the fourth worst state.

Texas maintained its #1 spot in the ranking for the fourth year in a row, as North Carolina, Florida,
Georgia and Tennessee all jumped up in ranks, taking the #2, 3, 4 and 5 spots, respectively.

Expressing the prevalent attitude among CEOs, one CEO said, "Michigan and California literally
need to do a 180 if they are ever to become competitive again. California has huge advantages with
its size, quality of work force, particularly in high tech, as well as the quality of life and climate
advantages of the state. However, it is an absolute regulatory and tax disaster, as is Michigan."

I am Tim Johnson and this has been the California Business Minute.

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Phone: (212) 697-0390, Fax: (212) 697-0394, Email: info@chiefexecutive.net