It's good to see resident progressive Chris Fitzsimon come full-circle and now realize that big business CEOs are worthy individuals and most knowlegable in creating jobs. No more "greedy, lying, worker-rights destorying CEO" rhetoric from Fitzsimon. Nope, he is now taking them at their word when it comes to the business climate in North Carolina.
On his blog, Fitzsimon points to today's article in Chief Executive Magazine which released a survey of CEOs across the nation ranking North Carolina as the 2nd best business climate in the nation.
Fitzsimon chooses to highlight the CEO's ranking of North Carolina tax and regulation structure as being friendly to business. Somehow he thinks this is an indictment of the free-market system and those of us who stand for it.
However, Fitzsimon misses the point, as usual. What exactly does he think these CEOs are talking about when they say regulation?
Let's try and help him out.
What do the states ranked in the top 5 have in common:
Texas, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee
Ok, for a little help, I'll give you the bottom 5 ranked states for comparison:
California, New York, Michigan, New Jersey, Massachusetts
So what "regulation" could these CEOs be referring to when comparing these 10 states?
Hmm... maybe labor policy?
The top 5 are all right-to-work states. The bottom five -- forced unionization.
So if Fitzsimon is now trusting CEOs to best manage our economy, does this mean he will swear off the anti-business rhetoric he normally pens? If he truly believes that "the CEOs who run manage corporations every day" know better than "think-tanks" what's best for North Carolina businesses, I welcome him to the fight to keep North Carolina from becoming more heavily unionized. I'm glad to see he now agrees that it is best to just leave it up to CEOs to decide the best business practice and not have undue influence from labor unions.
It's good to see that we now have allies on the left that see the crippling effects that labor unions have on the economy and job creation in North Carolina. I look forward to working with Chris to support our corporate CEOs in keeping North Carolina a right-to-work state for many years to come.
Shock! Civitas once again selectively picks comments that supports its view and ignores ones that don't.
I didn't see anywhere in this post that the CEO survey was also based on TAXES. I seem to recall you guys ranting often that corporate taxes are too high in North Carolina.
As for regulation, is unionization the only regulation you think is worrisome? That's good news that you guys support all the other public healthy and safety regulations, environmental regulations, worker regulations, etc., that are currently in place, the ones the CEOs apparently don't think are a burden to doing business here.
It's nice to know we are on the same side about regulation and business taxes.
Posted by: Chris | March 19, 2009 at 07:38 AM
Who's selectively picking comments? I think you did first by attempting to highlight taxes and regulation as two of the many criteria CEOs use to evaluate a state.
You also fail in your assumption that the criteria are all weighed equally. One look at the rankings and it's obvious that right-to-work status is the main factor guiding these rankings. Your beloved "taxes and regulation" are much smaller pieces of the overall puzzle. But in your typical progressive mind, you think everything should be equalized even when its not.
If two states were competing, one had a high tax rate but right-to-work protections and other had very low taxes but was a forced unionization state, where do you think a company is going to locate? The costs of unionization are much higher and more punitive than a state's corporate tax rate.
Posted by: Chris Hayes | March 19, 2009 at 09:53 AM
Comment from "Chris":
"I didn't see anywhere in this post that the CEO survey was also based on TAXES."
From the post in question:
"Fitzsimon chooses to highlight the CEO's ranking of North Carolina TAX and regulation structure as being friendly to business."
SHOCK! NC Policy Watch makes a flippant comment about Civitas without first reading the material.
By the way, if CEO's love NC so much, why do we have the sixth highest unemployment rate in the US?
http://www.bls.gov/lau/
One would think that, especially during these hard times, CEO's would be flooding the great tax and regulatory haven of this state with their businesses.
One last question: how is unionization working out for the US auto industry?
Posted by: brian b | March 19, 2009 at 10:23 AM
Let me get this straight. You guys write an entire post focussing ONLY on unionization and then are shocked why I wonder why you didn't comment on the fact that the survey is based on taxes, which you always say are too high and regulation, which you always say are too burdensome.
As to Brian's comment, do you think the survey is valid or not? If you do, then your comment about CEOs "loving NC so much" doesn't follow. The CEOS say they do.
And please explain how you know the survey is weighted the way you say. The story in Chief Executive says this.
"Chief Executive's fifth annual 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.
That hardly sounds like a survey that weighs unionization above all else or even weighs it more.
The bottom line is that CEOs say North Carolina is the second best place in the country to do business now, under current laws, current taxes, and current regulations...the ones you constantly say are strangling economic development.
As to who began the flippancy, check your own initial headline, unless you weigh my flippancy more than yours, and I accept that possibilitym, as you are apparently able to divine how surveys and opinions are weighted.
Posted by: Chris | March 19, 2009 at 04:49 PM
If the business climate is so great, why is unemployment at 9.7%, in the top 5 highest in the nation?
Posted by: Chris Hayes | March 19, 2009 at 04:58 PM
"As to Brian's comment, do you think the survey is valid or not? If you do, then your comment about CEOs "loving NC so much" doesn't follow. The CEOS say they do."
They may 'say' they love NC in this survey, but actions speak louder than words.
Unemployment: 9.7% - sixth highest in the nation
My comments merely highlight a disconnect between what the survey says and the actual state of NC's economy. If, like you believe, that magazine surveys are the end-all determing factor in a state's business climate - where are the results?
"That hardly sounds like a survey that weighs unionization above all else or even weighs it more."
The 'survey' may not weigh unionization above all else. But, beleive me, the CEO's sure weigh it pretty heavily when deciding upon their response.
Posted by: brian b | March 20, 2009 at 09:37 AM