How Ohio took N.C.’s business crown

Ohio’s edge came from shovel-ready sites. N.C.’s challenge is staying ready for the next big win.

North Carolina is no longer CNBC’s best state for business. Please respect our privacy at this difficult time.

Ohio took the top spot this year, and congratulations are in order. It has clearly made some smart economic reforms over the last few years (shoutout to the Buckeye Institute for that).

The state is also finally adding people again, which is nice to see. Come to think of it, you do not hear as many jokes anymore about Ohio transplants moving to North Carolina.

So maybe Ohio’s comeback is real. Or maybe they all already moved here. Either way, well done, Buckeye State.

North Carolina fell all the way to No. 2, losing by nine points out of 2,500. The basic explanation is simple: CNBC changed what it values most. Last year, “economy” was the top category. This year, infrastructure is.

North Carolina still ranks No. 1 for the economy, but Ohio ranked No. 1 in infrastructure. That was enough to flip the order.

These rankings are always a little inscrutable, though people do actually care about them. So I spend more time than I care to admit trying to figure out exactly how CNBC makes these rankings. I’m sure there is a method to the madness somewhere, but I just cannot promise I found it.

However, there is one interesting nugget here. CNBC says Ohio’s infrastructure advantage is partly about its robust program to pair companies with shovel-ready industrial development sites.

In this context, “infrastructure” is not just roads and bridges. It also means whether a company can show up and build quickly. Is the land assembled? Are the utilities there? Is there enough water, power and sewer capacity? Can a company move from announcement to construction without spending years untangling local, state and utility questions?

Ohio appears to have made that a specialty. CNBC highlighted its “SiteOhio Authenticated” program and inventory of construction-ready sites. Nobody runs for office promising more certified industrial dirt, but billion-dollar projects need somewhere to go.

North Carolina knows this is a priority, too. In 2022, the General Assembly created the Megasite Readiness Program to identify and prepare more 1,000-acre-plus sites capable of handling the next wave of major projects.

In one sense, North Carolina has been a victim of its own success. We have less available infrastructure because big companies have already claimed so much of it. Toyota, VinFast and Wolfspeed were huge wins. They also consumed some of the state’s best large industrial sites.

North Carolina’s run of megaproject wins depleted its inventory of megasites just as demand for them was rising. At the time, EDPNC said it was competing for 15 to 20 projects requiring a megasite, compared with only a few in a typical year.

But there is a money difference, too. Ohio backed its site-readiness push with a $750 million fund — roughly $375 million a year over its two-year budget. North Carolina’s comparable Megasite Readiness Program had about $108 million over two fiscal years, or roughly $54 million a year, plus another $10 million for smaller “selectsites.”

That is real money. It is not Ohio money.

So no, North Carolina has not lost its edge. People and businesses are still choosing this state. We are still the real First in Flight, no matter how much Ohio wants to inspect the birth certificate. And Charlotte is still the real Queen City, with apologies to Cincinnati and its very ambitious nickname.

But there is a useful warning in the ranking. Growth does not maintain itself. If North Carolina wants the next Toyota, Wolfspeed or advanced manufacturing megaproject, it needs places ready for those companies to go.

Last year, when North Carolina was No. 1, I wrote that the real story was not the trophy but the long-term reform agenda that put us there: lower taxes, fiscal discipline, regulatory restraint and a state government that mostly remembered growth is good.

That remains true.

Ohio can have the crown this year. They earned it.

North Carolina should just remember that getting to the top took years of disciplined work. Staying there will, too.

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