Washington, #3 on Forbes Best For Business List

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Washington State has moved to #3 in Forbes list of "Best States For Business".

Table: The Best States For Business

According to Forbes, Washington ranks #6 in "Regulatory Environment" and #2 in "Growth Prospects" and falls in the middle of the pack on "Business Costs".

What I find puzzling is that Republican candidates continue to drone on and on about how they'd "fix things" to make Washington more business friendly.

When Republicans candidates like Dino Rossi and, our local Republican operative to the Legislature, Doug Ericksen claim Washington's business climate is bad, they are just plain insulting the intelligence of the voters.

UPDATE:

*For Immediate Release*

Release Date: Thursday, July 31

CORRECTION: Gregoire campaign issues apology for television ad

Washington state moves from 5th to 3rd in Forbes business ranking

WASHINGTON STATE – People for Chris Gregoire, the re-election campaign for Gov. Gregoire, would like to clarify a statement in their first television ad. The ad states, “we’re one of the top five states to do business.”

Today, Forbes updated their annual rankings and Washington is now ranked as the third best state to do business (http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/30/virginia-georgia-utah-biz-cz_kb_0731beststates_table.html). The commercials currently on the air do not reflect the change, but will be corrected.

“We apologize to anyone who was misled into believing that Washington is the fifth best place to do business when, in fact, we are ranked third,” said Aaron Toso, press secretary for the Gregoire campaign.

According to the measurements used by Forbes magazine, Washington was ranked as the second best state for both our work force and growth prospects. Our state is also rated as having the sixth best regulatory environment and the seventh best state for the overall economic climate.

Even as George Bush has caused a national economic downturn, under Gov. Gregoire’s leadership, Washington state has been moving up in the rankings. Last year Washington state moved from 12th to fifth overall. “One of Washington's big strengths is reduced red tape,” is what Forbes noted as a major factor for the jump in ranking.

Now Washington state has been ranked:

Third best state to do business – Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/2008/07/30/virginia-georgia-utah-biz-cz_kb_0731beststates_table.html)
Fourth best state for starting a business – Fortune Small Business (http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/fsb/0711/gallery.Top10BestStates.fsb/4.html)
Top three best managed states – Pew Institute (http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/gpp_report_card.aspx)
Third greenest in “America’s Greenest States” – Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/2007/10/16/environment-energy-vermont-biz-beltway-cx_bw_mm_1017greenstates_2.html)

For more information on Gov. Chris Gregoire and her campaign, please visit www.ChrisGregoire.com.

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