Close Finish

by Geoffrey Norman

Thank God for New York.  Otherwise, Vermont would be dead last in this ranking of states according to their economic competitiveness.  The study's findings are sufficiently grim to inspire a headline writer at the Herald to describe the state's outlook as "desolate." 

And they accuse us of being extreme.

The conclusion of this study comes as no surprise to anyone who regularly visits this site.  What is interesting is the company Vermont keeps.  New York does worse than Vermont.  Rhode Island, Maine, and New Jersey are ranked just above us. 

Now, compare that group of losers with the states in the study's top five: Utah, Colorado, Arizona, Virginia, and South Dakota.

In none of these states would it be difficult for most Vermonters to find agreeable "lifestyle" arrangements.  Virginia might be marginal since so much of its character has been infected by the Washington D.C. virus.  But Colorado?  Utah?  These are cool places to live.  And South Dakota is a real sleeper. 

Bad enough (though predictable) to be ranked in the bottom five, but the indignity of keeping company with New Jersey & New York is almost insupportable.

Comments

[Bob Zeliff]

I incourage every one to use the links to the American Legislative Exchange Counsel site and look at the data. The Vermont detail is one of the pages This data is interesting but one can see that ALEC has a strong Repulican agenda when it weighs and interprets the data. A less biased intepretation of the same data would in some cases be very different. Because we have a min wage of 7.65 vs federal min give us a bad rating, because we have a progressive tax system gives us a couple of bad ratings, our job growth rating is bad, our %of state employees is bad, because we are not a "right to work" state gives us a bad rating. Interesting worth a read at the real data level, not the spun words on top.

[Allan LeBaron]

Utah? Wasn't that where the Mormons from VT and NY headed? Apparently they knew something.
Okay, cousin Ervil LeBaron was off the reservation, but most of the family that went out there became fine (and prosperous) citizens.

[GreggB]

Enjoy it Bob, it is all yours.

[RFC]

Ben Z.,

Quibble, if you like, with some of the "biased interpretation" of the ALEC data (I'm not sure I could agree with your assessment that it is a Republican bias), but it's pretty tough to question it's conclusions with respect to the standings regarding the burdens of both the income tax and the property tax. If you were the owner of a business looking to relocate, on the basis of just those two data points, would you choose Vermont?

[Chris Campion]

You don't need to read the study to know that job growth is an indicator of economic growth, and Vermont hasn't had any for 10 years. There's a reason why Vermont rears its ugly head in this report - the same reason that businesses rarely start up here, don't expand here, and leave if they are able. Ask graduating college seniors where they plan to find a job after graduation, if you can find any that haven't left yet.

[Lazarus Long]

This report was aired as a news item on the WCAX evening news of 7/9/09. The item aired just before it was about the cleanup of Lake Champlain.
As the result of a judicial ruling many landowners/homeowners are now going to have to get federal stormwater discharge permits for the runoff from their properties. That process is guaranteed to become expensive. I thought the juxtaposition of the two was priceless.

[Ed G. Mann]

If this report weighted to a Prog bias it would be fine, right Bob Z?

Thought so.

[G. Cross]

Bob Z is correct in his comment about ALEC as a group with a strong conservative agenda. However, such groups form the basis for just about all "research" on this site. For a good review of how conservatives have organized to promote conservativism, try this:
http://forwardamerica.blogspot.com/2008/03/republican-foundations-and-think-tanks.html You will recognize a large majority of the citations found on this tiger. Now, it is perfectly logical for conservatives to cite conservative commentary. To label it as research, however, is questionable at best.

[RRoper]

Shout out thanks to Eliot Spitzer and his 5K an hour hooker for knocking us out of 50th place! Go NY.

[Chris Campion]

George, the VT Department of Labor stats tell the same disastrous story - they're just not rated against other states. Note that VT tends to lag the national economy, since so much of our income is based on the leading indicators - yet we were on the downswing in terms of job losses in May 2008. The 10 year job growth rate is zero. You don't need to question the methodology of another study that is telling you same thing in a different context. Absent that, I'd love to see some of the great Vermont economic growth news you've been warehousing but have yet to share with us.

http://www.vtlmi.info/

[GreggB]

What is left to argue about? The state of things in VT is obvious to everyone living there and the possibilities for growth are nil. Game over. Love the suck or leave. Arguing over whether or not VT sucks(economically) has gotten ridiculous.