Staff Report
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Columbia Regional Business Report

A survey by Area Development, a publication that covers site selection and facility planning, has South Carolina and Georgia tied for No. 2 behind Texas in its ranking of the top states for conducting business.

The 2013 ranking is based on location consultants picking the Top 5 states in categories such as tax environment and certified shovel-ready sites.

The survey by the Westbury, N.Y.- based publication has Alabama No. 4, North Carolina No. 5, Louisiana No. 6, Tennessee No. 7, Florida No. 8, Mississippi No. 9 and California No. 10.

South Carolina, which also ranked No. 2 in the 2012 survey, finished as the No. 1 choice in the certified sites-shovel ready program and right-to-work environment categories.

Under business environment, the survey ranks states on overall cost of doing business, corporate tax environment, incentives programs, cooperative state government, speed of permitting, access to capital and project funding, most favorable regulatory environment and renewed consideration post-recession.

Under labor climate, states are ranked on availability of skilled labor, competitive labor costs, leading work force development programs, most diverse labor pool, beat right-to-work or non-right-to-work environment.

Under infrastructure-global access, states are ranked on rail and highway accessibility, certified sites and shovel ready programs, competitive utility rates and distribution-logistics access.

States were ranked in each category based on the number of times they were named as a “top-5 choice” by the responding consultants. Texas was cited 280 times overall. South Carolina and Georgia were each mentioned more than 200 times.