Virginia’s CNBC Business Ranking In Freefall Under McAuliffe
Looks like Virginia’s economy is going the way of Greentech.
Brutal grades for the McAuliffe administration today as CNBC drops Virginia out of the Top 10 best states in the country to do business:
“The Old Dominion is an old favorite of business, with friendly regulations,” CNBC said on its website. “But job creation has slowed in recent years.”
Job growth in Virginia has been mostly positive but has lagged behind the national growth rate during the economic recovery. Economists attribute that largely to a slowdown in federal spending.
Virginia has been No. 1 three times in the nine years since CNBC started the rankings. It was top-ranked in 2007, 2009 and 2011.
…and all under Republican General Assemblies. So what changed?
McAuliffe would have you believe that it has a lot to do with sequestration. Truth of the matter is, the drop has precipitously occurred on McAuliffe’s watch, as a manufactured budget crisis in 2014 over Medicaid expansion threw Virginia’s business climate into a panic, followed up by a rather droll 2015.
In the meantime, Governor McAuliffe seems to be soaking up the benefits of the McDonnell-Bolling era, resting on the laurel of $7.7 billion in investment brought into Virginia during his first 18 months. Still, if we’re fighting for the future of Virginia’s economy, one would think His Excellency would be a bit more focused on a jobs creation agenda rather than siphoning jobs away from Europe (for now).
