Rhode Island and Business Rankings — State Has Been Stuck for More than a Decade

Rhode Island and Business Rankings — State Has Been Stuck for More than a Decade

Despite commissions and gubernatorial promises— Rhode Island consistently comes up on the bottom of the leading business rankings and the implications are serious.

For business decision-makers around the country, Rhode Island’s growing bad press is defining the Rhode Island brand.

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“Rhode Island has been here before — this is its fifth time in last place. It has also never been far from here. The state has never finished higher than No. 45, the ranking it achieved in 2017 and 2018,” reports CNBC this year.

Moving the Needle

In January 2013, at a joint news conference, then-President of the Senate M. Teresa Paiva Weed and RIPEC Executive Director John Simmons unveiled a report titled “Moving the Needle” that featured a list of recommendations that they feel would help Rhode Island climb its way out of the cellar in national studies and rankings of business.

The report reviewed the individual factors that often cause Rhode Island to rank poorly compared to other states and made recommendations to begin to improve the state’s overall business climate and, subsequently, the way it is viewed in future studies.

“This report offers substantial recommendations to change how Rhode Island is ranked in national business-competitiveness surveys,” Paiva Weed said. “The economy is the Senate’s priority, and will be the Senate’s focus this session.”

“This benchmark is a huge development in understanding the factors driving or impeding Rhode Island’s growth agenda,” said Laurie White, president of the Greater Providence Chamber of Commerce. “The report is validation of the true link that exists between the legislative process and our ability to grow the jobs base. It is a monumental step forward in how we evaluate, prioritize and measure economic policy initiatives.”

Six months after the “Moving the Needle,” initiative was launched,  GoLocal reported that then-Senate President Theresa Paiva Weeds' office sent out a press release, "Passage of the legislative package builds on the General Assembly’s work over the past several sessions to improve the state’s economic competitiveness, including the creation of the Office of Regulatory Reform, pro-growth reforms to the state’s income tax, developing a single statewide electronic permitting system, and investments in workforce development."

And while some dismiss the methodology of the CNBC survey, another report listed Rhode Island as the worst state to start a business.

What does Governor Gina Raimondo say about the poor rankings? Nothing, she is at a conference in Idaho and her office is refusing comment.