Mannix Portefield
Register-Herald Reporter
August 04, 2008 10:22 pm
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West Virginia touts itself as “Open for Business,” but Forbes magazine feels the state has a long way to go — right up from the cellar in its annual rankings of “The Best States for Business.”
Even Mississippi, longtime occupant of last place in state rankings of positive attributes, holds down 42nd place. Forbes has now put West Virginia at the bottom for the second year in a row.
A watchdog group, Citizens Against Lawsuit Abuse, says the newest list should sound an alarm that more judicial reforms are in order.
“How fitting that West Virginia retreated from its ‘open for business’ slogan,” Steve Cohen, executive director of CALA, said Monday.
“Open for Lawsuits is more fitting.”
Forbes concluded that West Virginia’s positives couldn’t offset the negative ones thrown up by the legal environment.
Broken down, the magazine said the state ranked 14th in the cost of doing business, 50th in its regulatory environment, 38th in overall economic climate, 45th in quality of life, and dead last in growth prospects.
“Business costs are weighted the most, but low costs were not enough to keep Louisiana and West Virginia from being the bottom two in our ranking,” Forbes commentator Kurt Badenhausen observed.
“We look at a total of 32 data points to compile rankings.”
For three consecutive years, adjoining Virginia has been at the top of the heap in the Forbes list.
“Cross the border and with the bat of an eye, you can go from worst to first,” Cohen said.
“Fixing our broken lawsuit system in West Virginia will close this striking disparity.”
Cohen pointed to other groups that have assigned West Virginia a poor standing.
American Justice Partnership, a coalition of 70 groups concerned with civil justice issue, put the state last for jobs in deference to its reputation for litigation in a study performed for Directorship magazine.
And, for the third year in a row, the Institute for Legal Reform, based in the nation’s capital, considered West Virginia’s legal system the worst in the Union.
Business leaders recently said in a survey that they view civil justice reforms as the most pressing need, while the tax code and health care system are close behind.
“Let’s hope the Forbes ranking sounds the alarm for reform,” Cohen said.
“It will make a genuine difference in making West Virginia truly hospitable to jobs. Our leaders need to develop some political backbone to cut through the politics and start to help our state’s working families.”
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