A new study by the Milken Institute suggests Charlotte still has work to do when it comes to economic performance. The study lists the Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, S.C., metropolitan area as having the 27th best-performing economy among large U.S. cities. And that's actually an improvement over the previous year, when Charlotte ranked 35th out of 200 cities.
The study measured categories such as jobs, wages, salary and technology output. Employment growth was weighted most heavily, according to this methodology explainer. Tech-heavy cities seemed to do well, with Austin, Tx., heading the list. The Raleigh-Cary area came in at No. 13, while Charleston-North Charleston-Summerville, S.C., boasts the highest ranking for any city in the Carolinas, coming in at No. 11.
Monday, January 13, 2014
Study: Charlotte posts 27th best-performing economy
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6 comments:
Charlotte has a lot of poor, minimally-skilled people.
It doesn't help that our city is more interested in building out a games mecca around the 1955 Charlotte Coliseum than it is in building out a research university at UNCC.
We're lucky to be 27th on the Milken Institute list.
... and it also doesn't help that of Raleigh/Durham, Charleston, Austin, TX or most other higher seeded southern cities, Charlotte has some of the highest taxes:
-1st out of 100 counties in NC in sale stax
-highest property tax rate, 20% higher than that of Raleigh-Wake County NC, actually, correction, Charlotte-Mecklenburg is second behind Pasquotank County in NC
-in SC, property tax rate is about half, gas tax less, and income tax less (only boat and aircraft tax are higher in SC)
Austin has very high property taxes in lieu of an income tax.
Raleigh has lower property taxes because the state-that's us-pay so much for their amenities like museums, etc. In Charlotte, we mostly have to foot the bill ourselves.
I doubt very much, though, that the difference in property tax has much to do with it.
Austin and Raleigh have major public research universities. They employ thousands and they spin off high-paying jobs.
Here in North Carolina, NC State spun off SAS. Carolina spun off Quintiles.
That's what's driving this difference.
Not the tax rate.
In fact, show me any US city or metro area with 1 or more (RTP: 3!) research universities with highly-regarded programs in medicine, technology and/or biotechnology and I'll show you an island of prosperity.
It'll have little or nothing to do with taxes.
One last thing...(dang this no edit function!)
I agree with you that Charlotte's property tax rate, likely soon to be 1.28, is too high. Worse still, we get poor value for our money.
OK, good night.
Going from 35 to 27 shows some good momentum for Clt going into 2014. Lets hope Cannon and council set an agenda for local companies to flourish and continue to attract co.s looking to locate/relocate operations.
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