First Virginia fell to second place in the Forbes “Best States for Business” ranking. I was so depressed that I couldn’t blog about it. Now, we’ve fallen from 6th to 8th place in the Milken Institute’s 2010 State Technology and Science Index. I guess I can’t ignore our declining status any longer.
Here is the Virginia summary:
Virginia remained in the top 10, but fell from sixth to eighth. Virginia registered its best performances in technology concentration and dynamism (fourth), and technology and science workforce (sixth). Much of this strength stems from the Eastern Virginia suburbs of Washington, D.C., which have benefitted from their proximity to the federal government, a cluster of data-processing firms, and defense and aerospace contractors. Virginia’s overall slippage was attributable partly to a decline in human capital investment from eighth in the 2008 index to 15th this year. Virginia’s indigenous innovation ecosystem that spawns new firms is less extensive than those of Massachusetts and California. But Governor Bob McDonnell has signed bills in support of his “jobs and opportunity agenda” that attempt to address this gap. The legislation will exempt capital gains taxes on investments in start-up tech or biotech firms.