Virginia drops to a tie for fifth in ‘America’s Top States for Business’

Virginia continued its fall from the top in CNBC’s “America’s Top States for Business.”

After ranking first three times — in 2007, 2009 and 2011 — the Old Dominion dropped from No. 3 last year to a tie with Utah for No. 5.

Virginia’s Achilles’ heel is its cost of doing business, one of 10 categories measured by CNBC. The commonwealth ranked 38th among the states on business costs.

“Even after dropping two more spots and now barely holding onto a top five position, things won’t be getting any easier for Virginia, thanks to the Cost of Doing Business category,” said the business news network, which warned “the category carries more weight than ever because states are increasingly marketing themselves to businesses based on this factor.”

Virginia also encountered trouble in the infrastructure and transportation category for the second consecutive year. The category played a big role in Virginia’s decline to third last year.
CNBC noted that Gov. Bob McDonnell had used the commonwealth’s decline on the list to rally support for a $6 billion transportation funding bill passed earlier this year by the General Assembly.

The network said it is too early to tell how new transportation spending will affect Virginia’s ranking in the future.