NEW ORLEANS – Greater New Orleans scored near the top on a number of national rankings in Business Facilities magazine’s latest “Annual Rankings Report,” including:
• #2 – Lowest Cost of Business in U.S.
• #2 – Entrepreneurship Leaders in U.S.
• #2 – Logistics Leaders in U.S.
Business Facilities reports about Baton Rouge and New Orleans:
Baton Rouge, LA is our top-ranked metro for Lowest Cost of Business, which is based on KPMG’s 2016 Competitive alternatives study. The bi-annual survey from the audit, tax and advisory giant focuses on mid-sized U.S. metros (with populations between 750,000 and 2 million).
Baton Rouge’s favorable costs for industrial facility construction, property taxes, natural gas, electricity and labor all contributed to its first place ranking in the study, which compares U.S. cities across a range of costs and other factors related to doing business.
New Orleans was the second most cost-competitive location in the mid-sized category, followed by Nashville, TN, Omaha, NE, Albuquerque, NM and Memphis, TN. Other locations ranked among the top 10 included Indianapolis, IN, Oklahoma City, OK, Salt Lake City, UT and Raleigh, NC.
The 2016 KPMG Competitive Alternatives study measured 26 key cost components in each market, including costs associated with taxes, labor, facilities, transportation and utilities, as they apply to seven different business-to-business service sector operations and 12 different manufacturing sector operations. The KPMG study revealed that Baton Rouge had a cost index of 92.8, representing business costs 7.2 percent below the U.S. national baseline of 100.0. New Orleans followed at 93.1, Nashville at 93.8 and Omaha at 93.9. Contributing factors to the top ranked mid-sized U.S. cities follow:
Baton Rouge’s top ranking results primarily from its low property taxes and low costs for industrial construction and natural gas, coupled with the second lowest electricity costs and moderately low labor costs. Various state incentives help give Baton Rouge the second lowest effective corporate income tax rate.
Relative to nearby Baton Rouge, New Orleans has higher labor, electricity and property tax costs and ranked second for industrial construction costs. However, New Orleans has the lowest effective corporate income tax rate among the group of mid-sized cities compared, as well as low transportation and office lease costs.
