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The Best and Worst States for Business, According to CEOs

For CEOs, who naturally favor “pro-growth,” low-tax states, southern states present an undeniable bastion for business, according to Chief Executive magazine’s 2015 “Best and Worst States for Business” survey.

In this year’s survey, Texas remained the best state for business for the 11th year in row, followed by Florida, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. Since the recession began in December 2007, 1.2 million net jobs have been created in Texas, while 700,000 net jobs were created in the other 49 states combined, the magazine reported. This job creation contributed toward unemployment rates 1% lower than the national average, an advantage rounded out by extremely favorable taxation and regulation, strong workforce quality, and very good marks for living environment.

Despite notably low unemployment, two of the greatest hubs for business drew particularly unfavorable marks from CEOs: California ranked last in the survey, preceded by New York. Illinois, New Jersey and Massachusetts completed the bottom five. CEOs gave these states the lowest ratings because of their high tax rates and regulatory environments. One CEO told the magazine, “The good states ask what they can do for you; the bad states ask what they can get from you.”

Compared to the 2014 rankings, Idaho has made the largest improvement, rising 10 spots to number 18, primarily due to high growth rates in GDP, while South Dakota dropped eight places, “even though quality-of-life attractions enhance the state’s low-tax bona fides,” the magazine reported.

Check out the full rankings below:

Best States for Business rankings

 

Where Questionable Insurance Claims Come From

Wanna blame someone for your high insurance premiums?

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Point to the residents of California, Florida, Texas, New York and Michigan.

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Combined, these five states generate half of the nation’s questionable insurance claims — most of which are either suspect auto policy submissions or fake injury claims.

These states account for 49 percent of all “questionable claims” as tabulated by the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB).

Questionable claims are those claims that NICB member insurance companies refer to NICB for closer review and investigation based upon one or more indicators of possible fraud.

NICB just released its three-year analysis of questionable claims in the United States from January 1, 2008 through December 31, 2010.

New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Tampa and Detroit are the cities generating the most QCs. Florida has three cities in the top 10 for QCs—Tampa, Miami and Orlando.

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Of course, a large reason that these states have so many fishy claims is that they are so large. Some 110 million people live in the five states mentioned.

But while they do contain about 36% of the nation’s population, that doesn’t actually explain why these locations create 49% of the questionable claims.

Minnesota Leads Nation in Touchdowns

No, despite the their shocking comeback to beat the Arizona Cardinals yesterday, we’re not talking about touchdowns scored by the still-struggling Minnesota Vikings. Unfortunately for those in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, battered — both physically and emotionally — QB Brett Favre has only found the endzone nine times this season.

But Minnesota did surprisingly lead all states in 2010 in terms of tornado touchdowns — mostly due to an insane amount of twister activity on June 17, which saw an unprecedented 48 tornadoes, according to the St. Paul Pioneer Press.

It leads all others in the number of tornadoes that have swept through the state this year. The National Weather Service says 104 tornadoes touched down in Minnesota in 2010, shattering the old record of 74 in 2001.

The state usually doesn’t find itself at the top of the list. Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas typically have the most.

Obviously, tornado preparedness and relief are a very serious matter.

Our sincere condolences go out to all of the families and communities affected by the loss of life and property due to these pernicious windstorms throughout the year.

tornado

New Research Reveals Some Gulf Coast Property Elevation Levels to Be Dangerously Low

As Claire Wilkinson of the III brought to my attention the other day, a new study from the Institute for Business & Home Safety has revealed some disturbing realities about how vulnerable the Gulf Coast remains to flood risk. The study details the destruction that Hurricane Ike cause last year.

According to the report:

it is possible to build homes that can withstand extreme hurricane conditions, but also points out that steps must be taken to improve building standards and products in order to better protect coastal properties. The key findings and recommendations stemming from the research conducted by the IBHS engineering team are supported in the following pages through examples of construction failures and successes and comparisons between building code-plus and traditional construction techniques. The research also led to recommendations for strengthening the built environment through public policy and building code changes.

Three specific proclamations are also laid out: (1) Current elevation requirements in surge-prone areas are not high enough, (2) new research is needed to assess actual performance of roofing products and systems in order to improve material production and installation specifications, ad (3) Water intrusion must be better managed – through a combination of structural improvements and more realistic testing.

Claire succinctly offers some more insight into the report’s results:

As well as providing flood insurance, the NFIP establishes base flood elevation (BFE) levels for properties. All but a handful of properties located closest to the coast on the Bolivar Peninsula, Texas and even built to the highest elevation requirements, were washed away during Hurricane Ike. By contrast, the study found that 10 homes on the Bolivar Peninsula designed and built under the IBHS Fortified…for safer living program, survived the storm with minor damage. The Fortified homes had outdoor decks at 18 feet that were destroyed, but the homes themselves which were elevated to 26 feet, survived. According to IBHS, most homes in coastal areas are built to or slightly above 100-year BFEs.

Hopefully, these structures will not be tested with hurricane-force winds and storm surges this hurricane season. Still, such findings make it all the more necessary for those on the Gulf Coast — including businesses, legislators, regulators, engineers and scientists — to remain vigilant and continually strive for better protection.

Hurricane Ike Study