When it comes to state rankings, most politicians love to tout one in particular: Virginia's frequent spot near the top of the list of states that are friendly for businesses.
Virginia has reached the top spot in Forbes.com's annual ranking for several years. Last month, Pollina Corporate Real Estate, a firm that helps companies relocate, put Virginia in its top 10 states for business.
So what does it mean to be business-friendly?
Among the factors Forbes uses to rank businesses are: business costs, labor supply, regulatory environment, current economic climate and quality of life.
Pollina uses 33 factors, largely more detailed variations on the ones Forbes uses. It takes into account how many Virginians go to college, workers' compensation rates, tax rates, crime rates and so on.
Hugh Keogh, president of the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, said those details give businesses a picture of what it's like to operate in Virginia. Does the government provide tax incentives to come here? Will workers like living here and want to stay? Is it easy to move goods on the transportation network? Is there an educated populace? How much will the business pay in taxes?
"It means slightly different things to the different surveys. To Pollina and Forbes, it means the combination of public policy and economic opportunity make Virginia a very attractive place in which to invest and create jobs," Keogh said. "In other words, state government is doing its job and the business community of Virginia is doing its job in terms of creating an environment that is conducive to investment and job creation."
Brent Pollina, the company's vice president and author of the study, said Virginia has been in the top three on the Pollina list since 2004 because "Virginia's state and local leaders are innovative and aggressive in attracting and retaining jobs and investment."
Keogh said he usually points companies to Virginia's per-capita income--10 percent higher than the national average--and the unemployment rate--30 percent lower than in other states--which Keogh called typical of Virginia's trends.
The point of all these rankings is to lure more businesses to Virginia.
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership is a state agency devoted to recruiting companies to move to or expand in Virginia.
When Virginia is trying to persuade a company to open in Virginia, it's likely that other states--and, these days, other countries--are doing the same thing.
That's where the rankings can be very helpful, said VEDP Director of Business Development Liz Povar.
Rankings are "independent third-party validations of policies and procedures," Povar said, and the state uses them as a hook to get companies to look at Virginia.
"Every state and every country seeks to find a way to position themselves," Povar said. "[The rankings] truly have meaning in that global race, in the initial courting."
Of course, telling a company that Virginia is ranked as a business-friendly state may get that company interested, but the ranking must be validated for the company to eventually open shop in the state.
"You can't just put that hook out there without having the ability to deliver," Povar said.
The flip side of being good for business can sometimes mean being not-so-good for workers.
"What it means is we have a terrible workers' compensation system and an unemployment system that doesn't measure up to a lot of neighboring states," said Jim Leaman, president of the Virginia AFL-CIO federation of labor unions. "Sure, taxes are low, and your worker comp and your unemployment are systems that are pro-business rather than pro-worker, which they were intended to be. It would be nice if we strived to be No. 1 for workers."
Leaman says rankings of those systems put Virginia near the bottom. He also said Virginia's status as an "at-will" state--meaning that you can be fired for just about any reason--means workers have few rights unless they can prove their firing was based on discrimination.
Keogh, of the Chamber, argues that "the best social program is a job" and that more businesses mean more jobs, which is good for workers.
Leaman and Keogh agreed on one thing--Virginia ranks low in the amount of incentive money that the governor has available to help lure businesses to Virginia.
"There's not enough money in the pot to be as competitive as we'd like to be," Keogh said, referring to the Governor's Opportunity Fund. "We are the No. 1 state but we don't have enough money to crow about it."
Chelyen Davis: 540/368-5028
Email: cdavis@freelancestar.com