Over the past several months, Detroit Renaissance has been analyzing why some economies grow and others don't to better understand how we move our region forward. It's an on-going process that will lead to the development of "Road to Renaissance 2.0" - our second generation regional economic transformation strategy - in the next year.

But suffice it to say, the findings we're reaching aren't rocket science. Here's a few nuggets to get started:

• According to CEO Magazine, 9 of the 10 best states for business are in the sun belt and 7 of the 10 worst states (yes, Michigan is one of them) are in the "rust belt."

• Not coincidentally, according to the Miliken Institute, 46 of the top 50 high growth cities are in the sun belt and 48 of the 50 worst performing cities (yes, Detroit is one of them) are in the "rust belt."

To add more fuel to the fire, consider this:

• Accrding to Forbes Magazine, the top 10 states for private sector job growth over the past decade were ranked, on average, as having business cost environments that were more than twice as good than the ten worst performing states (yes, Michigan was among the bottom ten). 

• Unfortunately, Michigan's relative state & local tax burden, according to the Tax Foundation, has actually increased since 1970.  In addition, Michigan ranked 40th and 41st respectively in the Forbes and Beacon Hill rankings on business costs and competitiveness.

Simply put, unless we fix the economic competitiveness of our state, we aren't going to see the pay-off we should from many of the innovative economic development initiatives underway throughout the state.

 - Doug