CHICAGO, Aug. 22, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- "The Four Horseman of the Apocalypse were sent as harbingers at the end of the world. While not the end of the world, if the current economic trend continues it will be the end of the world as Americans and Europeans have come to know it," says economist and corporate relocation expert Dr. Ron Pollina in the just-released Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States for 2012, co-published this year with the American Economic Development Institute.
"For America, the four horsemen symbolize the four factors that will be instrumental in the continued downward cycle of the nation—taxes, regulation, international trade policy, and education," Dr. Pollina explains.
But in the annual study of job retention and creation by the 50 states and the federal government, Dr. Pollina, author of the recent book entitled Selling Out a Superpower, also emphasizes that the top 10 pro-business states provide guideposts for other states—and federal government—to counteract further economic destruction.
But Utah, the brightest star in 2012 on the American Flag, is the ultimate model for the rest of the country. Brent Pollina, Vice President of Park Ridge, Illinois-based Pollina Corporate Real Estate and co-author of the study, names Utah as "America's most pro-business state," nudging powerhouse Virginia out of the top spot.
"Utah is a great example of what enlightened and motivated political leadership can accomplish with a solid plan," says Brent Pollina. "Utah has certainly been a beehive of industry rising in 2005 from a rank of #23 to #2 in 2009, maintaining that position through 2011 and then pushing Virginia aside. This was no easy feat since Virginia ranked number one in our list of pro-business states for five of the last nine years. Utah is the first state west of the Mississippi to rank #1."
This year's Most Improved State, Indiana, moved from #23 in 2010 to #5 in 2012, and it holds elite status for the second consecutive year as the only Northern state to make the Top 10 list.
The Pollina Corporate Top 10 Pro-Business States for 2012 are: 1) Utah 2) Virginia 3) Wyoming 4) North Dakota 5) Indiana 6) Nebraska 7) South Dakota 8) Kansas 9) Missouri and 10) Oklahoma. The study, considered the most comprehensive, unbiased and unvarnished by the economic development industry, is the "Gold Standard" for evaluating and ranking states based on 32 factors controlled by state government, including taxes, human resources, education, right-to-work legislation, energy costs, infrastructure spending, workers compensation laws, economic incentive programs and state economic development efforts.
The states suffering the greatest drop in the study—Connecticut, Nevada and Illinois—also deserve special attention so their leadership can modify their economic strategy in order to keep pace with their peers; California ranked dead last for the ninth consecutive year.
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