California ranked dead last in a poll of 556 CEOs asking which state is the best place to do business. While CEOs are certainly not an unbiased lot, they also have considerable say in where to open new facilities. And it appears they would rather be hung upside down than do business in California. This should be of concern to all Californians, especially in the current nasty recession.
The survey asked CEOs to grade states based on three criteria: taxes and regulation, workforce quality, and living environment. Each criteria had multiple questions, which were answered on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being the worst. California ranked on the low end at 5.81 for workforce quality, in the middle for living environment with 6.50 – but dead last at an abysmal 1.60 for taxes and regulations. No other state had a ranking in the ones for this. California stands alone here, and this is why California cratered in the rankings.
From my latest on CAIVN.
Right – last time I looked, California was ranked something like eighth on a world economic scale, not too far behind the Untied States.
And its budget is in catastrophic shape…
California is absolutely a VC center, and great for startups too because of the talent pool.
But I think those CEOs are from large, established corporations, with manufacturing and support facilities in multiple states. And they don’t want to expand in California.For example, Abobe, EA, and even Twitter are relocating facilities elsewhere