Rather than tell you why you should consider Kentucky for your next business expansion, Kentucky would rather just show you. Consider the evidence:
- Kentucky leads the nation in new business creation, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. With 6,686 new businesses opening in the second quarter of 2013, Kentucky registered a 6.05 percent jump from the previous year – best in the country.
- Kentucky ranks fourth in the nation in new and expanded corporate facility projects per capita, according to Site Selection magazine. This leads the entire Southeast U.S.
- Among all metropolitan areas with population of 200,000 to 1 million, the Lexington-Fayette MSA ranks eighth in the U.S. in total corporate facility investment projects in 2013, according to the Conway New Plant Report – the official facility database of Site Selection.
- Among metro areas with population less than 200,000, the Bowling Green MSA ranks sixth in corporate plant activity, while the Cincinnati MSA – which includes a wide swath of Northern Kentucky – ranks sixth in the U.S. among all large metros (MSAs with population over a million).
- Among all micropolitan areas in the U.S., Kentucky places seven in the top 100 in terms of corporate facility activity – led by Paducah (No. 16), Danville (No. 27), and Frankfort (No. 41).
- Kentucky exports reached a record $22.1 billion in 2012, with products and services traveling around the globe to a record 199 countries.
- Kentucky ranks third in the nation in total air cargo and is home to two of the largest air cargo hubs in America.
- In 2012, CNBC ranked Kentucky’s business costs the lowest in the nation; and Kentucky’s industrial power costs rank sixth lowest in the U.S.
But that is not the end of the story. If Gov. Steve Beshear has his way, the Kentucky business climate is about to get even better. The Governor announced on Feb. 4 that he intends to overhaul Kentucky’s tax code and make it one of the most competitive in America.
Among his proposed reforms, the Governor would create an angel investor tax credit; expand the state’s research and development tax credit to cover human capital; double the New Markets Tax Credit; exempt inventory from the state property tax; eliminate selected negligible state property tax rates for tangible personal property; and exempt certain sales and use taxes on a variety of industries that are important to Kentucky’s economy.
In a state of 4.4 million people, these proposed changes are landmark and offer a potential boon to business. Kentucky is a state that makes things, and the Governor’s reforms make the Commonwealth an even more competitive location for business and industry.
Manufacturing accounts for 17 percent of the state’s GDP and employs 11.6 percent of the state’s work force. Kentuckians make cars, trucks, chemicals, plastics, steel, fabricated metals, pharmaceuticals, processed foods and beverages, distilled liquors, and a host of other products.
In an extremely competitive global economy, the Southeast U.S. is widely considered by corporate real estate executives and site selection consultants alike to be the single-most competitive business location on the planet.
And in that region right now, there is no more competitive place to be than right here in Kentucky.