From this morning's local newsrag......
Forbes: Region bad for business
The magazine's survey ranked Pennsylvania 45th among states in its 'U.S. Economic Freedom Index.' The Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/ Hazleton area was ranked among the worst regions in the state.
snip....
"In coming up with our ratings, we evaluated 143 variables for each state, using the most recent data," the Forbes article read. "This snapshot includes tax rates, state spending, occupational licensing, environmental regulations, income redistribution, right-to-work and prevailing-wage laws, tort laws and the number of government agencies. These we grouped into five sectors - fiscal, regulatory, judicial, size of government and social welfare.
"For each of the 143 variables we ranked states from 1 (most free) to 50 (least free), calculated an average sector ranking and then weighted them to get an overall score. Welfare, fiscal and regulatory matters counted about equally; government size and judicial ratings counted for less."
Pennsylvania came in No. 45, sixth from the bottom. It was followed in the "race for the worst" by Illinois, Rhode Island, Connecticut and California, with New York being the least economically free state in the country.
And within Pennsylvania, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre/Hazleton ranked as the third worst major metropolitan area in which to do business, followed at the bottom by Reading and York.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6605386/This side of the state is no day at the beach either.