RI Officials Weigh In on CNBC Ranking: RI Is 5th Worst State for Business

RI Officials Weigh In on CNBC Ranking: RI Is 5th Worst State for Business

CNBC's annual ranking of the Top States for Business was released on Thursday, and it was another bad year for Rhode Island.

The CNBC analysis is the bellwether ranking that nearly every CEO sees each year.

Rhode Island is now ranked as the fifth-worst state for business. It fell two positions from 2024.

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GoLocal reached out to a range of politicians to get their take on the poor ranking. Two did not respond — gubernatorial candidate Helena Foulkes, who has not responded to questions from GoLocal since it ran an investigative series regarding her involvement in the opioid crisis and her relationship with the Sacklers and Purdue Pharma. And Senate President and union head Val Lawson also did not respond.

 

McKee Cited Areas of Improvement

Governor Dan McKee defended Rhode Island and took some umbrage with the ratings.

“While their findings do not always align, national rankings like the CNBC’s America’s Top States for Business and the U.S. World and News Report Best State Rankings can help highlight the areas where states are making progress and where they need additional effort,” said McKee.

“One area where they do align is quality of life, with CNBC ranking Rhode Island in 13th place, and U.S. World and News Report ranking RI #24 overall among Best States, with positive ratings for numerous quality of life indicators, such as environment, opportunity, and health care,” McKee added.

McKee pointed to education as an area in which Rhode Island saw significant improvement in the CNBC ranking, although there was little improvement in the state’s RICAS scores in 2024. In the CNBC ranking, it showed Rhode Island improved in the education standings from 43rd to 33rd, but still a dismal position.

“The 2025 CNBC rankings show that Rhode Island has improved in five key areas year over year, including workforce, access to capital, cost of living,  education and quality of life. In fact, our education ranking jumped 10 places from last year, which may be explained by our statewide Learn365RI efforts,” said McKee. “This information affirms our focus on increasing educational outcomes, raising incomes for Rhode Islanders, supporting health and wellness, and improving our infrastructure.”

 

“State Remains an Economic Backwater”

Ken Block, businessman and former candidate for governor, condemned the poor rankings and the state's response.

“CNBC’s report is damning, but also repetitive. We have seen Rhode Island rank poorly in this report for many years. Our politicians do not care – there is no consequence to them for this kind of poor performance,” said Block.

“How many hundreds of millions have we spent on infrastructure since the Raimondo administration? And yet, our infrastructure ranking dropped to the 11th worst in the country,” added Block.

Block points to the failure of the Washington Bridge and the response by McKee and legislative leaders as an example of Rhode Island malaise.

“The governor and the legislature have failed to provide answers regarding many aspects of the Washington Bridge debacle. The buffoonery involved in this disaster would be comical if so much wasn’t riding on the outcome,” said Block.

“Our government desperately needs to be professionalized and made far more transparent. For years, we have been moving in the wrong direction when it comes to transparency,” said Block. “Rhode Island remains the ‘you gotta know a guy’ state. We suffer under one-party rule, so there is no check and balance to keep those in power from going off the rails."

"These are the reasons why our state remains an economic backwater and consistently underperforms compared to most other states,” added Block.

 

Shekarchi Not Focused on National Polls

Speaker of the House Joe Shekarchi, in response to questions about the poor business rankings, “I worry about how Rhode Islanders feel about the economy, not national polls that tend to fluctuate. I’m proud of the many measures enacted by the legislature in recent years to address the economy, including the elimination of the car tax and the elimination of the tangible tax for most small businesses.”

“I remain focused on creating more affordable housing opportunities for Rhode Islanders and I am encouraged that the number of building permits have significantly risen, a good indicator that we are on the right track.  Housing and economic development go hand in hand; when companies look to locate in Rhode Island, one of the first factors they consider is available housing stock," he added. 

 

GOP Leaders — Sadly Not News

Michael Chippendale, the House Minority Leader, told GoLocal this failure is now baked into the state due to the lack of action.

“Why is anyone surprised?  This is not news if you are actually engaged and listening to the small business owners, the manufacturers, the truck drivers, the consumers who bear the brunt of inaction by our state policy leaders. Rhode Island Republicans, have been banging the economic restructuring drum for years – consistently advocating for tax cuts, regulatory relief, energy reform and proper infrastructure maintenance – and year after year our common sense reform proposals lay in the legislative abyss of being ‘held for further study.’ This ranking is not surprising at all.  What is surprising is the utter lack of urgency of Democratic governance to address this self-imposed downward spiral,” said Chippendale.

Joe Powers, the chair of the Rhode Island GOP tells GoLocal, “Simply put it is a consequence of bloated government, bloated spending, and bloated taxes...all adding up to a bloated budget that does nothing but weigh this state down.”

The General Assembly continues to govern like there’s no tomorrow, spending recklessly, taxing endlessly, and regulating blindly. Meanwhile, Governor McKee stands by and lets it happen, so long as he can keep his fingerprints off the fallout. But here's the hard truth, when you find yourself in a hole, you stop digging. Rhode Island Democrats? They brought a backhoe,” added Powers.

“We’re near the bottom in business friendliness, infrastructure, and cost of doing business. Yet our elected leaders continue to chase headlines instead of real solutions, preferring short-term political theater over long-term economic health,” said Powers

Powers added, “This is what happens when state government becomes more about protecting its own interests than creating opportunities for Rhode Islanders. The small business owner, the tradesman, the entrepreneur, they’re the ones paying the price for this dysfunction.”

“Rhode Island doesn’t need more gimmicks. It needs guts. It needs leadership that knows how to tighten the belt, cut red tape, and actually support the people who make this state work. Until then, the rankings won’t change, just the excuses,” said Powers.