Governor Kaine Announces Virginia’s Ranking as One of America’s Most Business-Friendly States

RICHMOND - Governor Timothy M. Kaine today announced that Virginia was named one of America’s most business-friendly states in the annual independent study conducted and published by Pollina Corporate Real Estate, Inc., a top U.S. corporate site relocation expert. The Top Ten Pro-Business States 2006: America’s Economy in the 21st Century study evaluates state and federal economic development policies.

“Virginia’s aggressive and focused economic development efforts together with our positive business climate have earned this high praise,” said Governor Kaine. “Attracting jobs and investment is a top priority of our Administration and we’re proud of this continuing accomplishment.”

Virginia finished near the top of the study at No. 2. Other states that made the list include South Carolina (1), South Dakota (3), North Carolina (4), Wyoming (5), Georgia (6), Florida (7), Maryland (8), Alabama (9) and Kansas (10). The Pollina study takes a comprehensive approach to evaluating and ranking states based on a total of 29 factors including taxes, human resources, right-to-work legislation, energy costs, infrastructure spending, workers compensation legislation and jobs lost or gained. The evaluation also considers fourteen state government-controlled factors based on incentive programs and state economic development departments.

While many states are losing ground to global competition due to poor efforts at keeping jobs and attracting businesses, the report praised Virginia’s “pro-business policies that result in job growth,” said Dr. Ronald R. Pollina, the study’s author and president of Pollina Corporate Real Estate.

“While many of the overseas job losses are inevitable, a surprising number of jobs can be kept in the U.S. if we follow Virginia’s example and make the right efforts to work with businesses,” Pollina said.

Chicago-based Pollina Corporate Real Estate is a full service brokerage and consulting firm, representing corporations in real estate matters on a national and international basis.