Gov. Rick Scott and top legislative leaders spent much of last year talking about the need to make Florida more pro-business, but the state dominates a new report listing the 20 cities with the lowest operating costs and best business climate.
In a ranking of the 20 cheapest cities to set up shop, Florida appears five times, with Orlando claiming the top spot. Jacksonville finished third, and Broward County ranked 20th. Tampa Bay was seventh, and Palm Beach County came in at 16th.
No other state placed more than one city on the list of top 20.
"Florida is one of the most pro-business states in the nation," said John Boyd Jr., a principal with BizCosts.com, the New Jersey-based company that did the analysis earlier this month. "And it has been for some time."
BizCosts compared the annual costs of operating a typical corporate headquarters in 55 cities across the U.S., weighing factors such as labor costs, tax burden, utility costs and travel costs. For its model, it calculated those expenses for a 75,000-square-foot facility employing 300 people.
It found that Orlando had the lowest cost of the 55 cities studied, totaling about $19.9 million a year. Jacksonville was slightly more — $20.1 million a year – and Broward County (home to Fort Lauderdale) was $21.6 million. New York City had the highest cost, at $28.5 million a year.
Florida cities benefited from relatively low labor costs, tax burden, land and construction costs.
The report comes a month after the Small Business&Entrepreneurship Council placed Florida sixth overall — and second among big states — in a ranking of the best places to run a small company.
With the state facing record unemployment levels — a 12 percent jobless rate, with 1.1 million people out of work — state political leaders built campaigns around the need to bring more jobs to Florida. Central to that was the implication that the state had not done enough to accommodate business or, in some cases, fostered an adversarial relationship with the business community.
University of Central Florida economist Sean Snaith, who called Florida "very business-friendly," said lawmakers should try to streamline rules and make the state as pro-business as possible.
"There are other dimensions to attracting business," he said, "things like quality education, a skilled work force. And that's the sort of thing you may need to spend money on."
Read the full article, “Orlando is cheapest place to open business, report says” by Jim Stratton at the Orlando Sentinel Online http://bit.ly/eHOsdQ
This blog entry presents something of a contradiction. On one hand it cites Florida as being recognized as one of the more pro-business states in the nation. On the other hand it cites lawmakers’ belief that Florida does not do enough to accommodate business and has an adversarial relationship with the business community. Did the latter yield the 12 percent jobless rate or was it the recession? Regardless, the entry concludes with observations by an economist that have merit. Florida can improve the prospects of future economic growth by streamlining rules/regulations, improving the education-level of its residents, and workforce enhancement. All of these things should probably be reflected in the recommendations arising from the study.
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