Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
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WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM AUGUST 10 - 16, 2022 UCW 5 JOHN HOOD, Board Member, John Locke Foundation. COMMENTS? Editor@upandcomingweekly.com. 910-484-6200 When CNBC ranked North Carolina the best state in America for busi- ness a few weeks ago, Democrats and Republicans spun the news in familiar ways. e former used it to promote the leadership of Gov. Roy Cooper, cit- ing CNBC's own take that the state had prevailed against its Sunbelt competi- tors by "putting partisanship aside" and avoiding contentious debates on social issues. GOP politicos and activ- ists responded by touting the benefits of a decade's worth of pro-growth tax and regulatory reforms by the General Assembly — most of which Cooper opposed, which in their view makes it hypocritical for him to claim credit for the CNBC ranking. If you look closely at its methodol- ogy, you'll find some support for both political takes. But you'll also find key insights that produced no headlines. e study's sources included the Tax Foundation's State Business Tax Cli- mate Index and the Fraser Institute's Economic Freedom of North America Index, both of which gave North Caro- lina high marks. However, the study also included voting-rights rankings from the left-leaning Brennan Center for Justice and anti-discrimination rankings from Freedom for All Ameri- cans, an LGBTQ-rights organization. As it happens, North Carolina didn't rank in the top five, much less at the top of the list, in any of the broad categories encompassing those measures. CNBC ranked our state 26th in the cost of doing business, 22nd in business friendliness, and 28th in "life, health, and inclusion." So, how did our state end up at the top of the overall list? Because CNBC used a weighted average of many dif- ferent categories — and North Caro- lina ranked either middling or high in all of them. Other CNBC categories included access to capital (2nd), tech- nology and innovation (5th), work- force (12th), education (14th), and infrastructure (17th). Some of our high rankings are related to policy choices by lawmakers and other public officials. As I have pointed out on numerous occasions, North Carolina has a comparatively high return on public investment in highways and public schools, and re- mains one of the most generous state funders of higher education in the country. You and I may disagree about the causes and practical consequenc- es of these conditions. But because of the way CNBC set up its study, they were bound to boost North Carolina's overall score. Other high rankings for our state, however, have more to do with longstanding structural features of its economy, such as its strong bank- ing and finance sector (which has its roots in policy choices, yes, but those made more than a century ago when lawmakers adopted relatively loose regulation of statewide branching and bank-issued insurance products). In only one of the study's constitu- ent categories did our state rank at the very top of the national list — but it was a big one. After North Carolina, the top-scoring states on CNBC's "economy" category were Tennes- see, Washington, Florida and Idaho. e category included measures of job creation, GDP growth, real estate markets, the presence of corporate headquarters, and the fiscal condition and creditworthiness of state and lo- cal governments. Take special note of those latter measures. Over the past decade the General Assembly has prudently built up the state's financial reserves, protecting its triple-A credit ratings while sending a clear signal to entre- preneurs, investors, job creators and corporate decision makers that North Carolina is better prepared than most other places to weather future storms, be they meteorological or economic. State Treasurer Dale Folwell has also played a key role in improving the state's fiscal position and pre- paredness. ere's nothing particularly excit- ing about paying off debts or stashing money in rainy-day accounts and defined-benefit reserves. It doesn't make headlines. It just makes good sense. OPINION Why does North Carolina rank number one? by JOHN HOOD Questions about our Readiness Programs? Call (910) 678 - 8351 -ADULT HIGH SCHOOL -ASVAB PREP -ENGLISH AS A SECOND LANGUAGE -GED® / HISET® -MATH & ENGLISH REVIEW COURSES Enter Your NEW SEASON with FTCC's College & Career Readiness programs! Scan QR CODE for more information