The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has released a study that analyzes each state’s regulations and how they could be made more business-friendly.
Each state is rated as good, fair or poor and Michigan was put in the “poor” category. The chamber study claims that if Michigan improved its regulatory climate to the level discussed in the report, the result would be a one-time boost of 25,881 net new jobs. The rate of new business formation would increase resulting in the creation of more than 1,858 new firms each year.
Here is what the chamber recommends: tighten up the state’s civil rights act and limit the damages that can be awarded when an employer is found to be discriminating against a worker; become a right-to-work state and reduce the level of unionization in the workforce; place further restrictions on the civil rights of the disabled; and ease the plant-closing notification requirements placed on businesses.
“Without cost to its state government — or the taxpayers — Michigan can take steps now to improve its economic condition and begin to prime the pump of job creation and new business formation,” said Lisa Rickard, president of the chamber’s Workforce Freedom Initiative. “The goal of this study is to provide state policymakers with an objective view of how policies in their states compare with policies in other states, and perhaps more importantly, how reforms can accelerate economic growth.”
I suspect some people would not use the words “objective” or “reform” when describing the chamber’s recommendations.

Recent Posts: