Survey: Companies have sunnier views of Michigan's business climate

Posted on June 29, 2015

LANSING — Nearly two-thirds of the companies that operate in Michigan say the state has a positive business climate and  they would be likely to promote Michigan to friends or co-workers as a place to start a business, according to a new state survey released today.

The survey shows companies overall are more positive about Michigan’s business and regulatory climates than when the state conducted a similar poll for the first time in July 2013.

State leaders say increased optimism is evidence Michigan is taking the right steps, including reforming business taxes, to encourage companies to do business in the state.

Their goal: To improve the interaction between business and government by speeding up processing times, getting rid of some required forms and moving more services online.

“We want people to be able to move as fast as they can on the economic activities that they wish to engage in,” Lt. Gov. Brian Calley told Crain’s this week. “This is taking unproductive time and giving it back to the customer.”

The Michigan Department of Talent and Economic Development commissioned the survey, conducted by Ann Arbor-based ForeSee. In all, 519 companies were polled over a month last winter about their perception of Michigan’s regulatory climate.

Questions tried to gauge businesses’ interactions with the departments of Treasury,Environmental Quality and Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, which manage roughly two-thirds of all corporate regulations in Michigan.

Among the findings:

  • Sixty-four percent of respondents have a positive perception of Michigan’s business climate and would refer friends and colleagues to the state to open businesses. That’s a 10 percentage point increase from the baseline set in July 2013.
  • Slightly more than half of the respondents — 52 percent and 54 percent, respectively — say their interactions with the three state departments surveyed improved their perception of Michigan as a whole and rate highly the state’s regulatory environment. Both results improved from July 2013.
  • Fifty-seven percent of respondents say they trust Treasury, DEQ and LARA, up 13 percentage points from July 2013 and the biggest gain in the poll.

Gov. Rick Snyder’s administration has eliminated the Michigan Business Tax, replacing it with a 6 percent corporate income tax, as well as the personal property tax.

The state also has eliminated more than 1,900 administrative rules out of a total of 17,000 statewide, said LARA Director Mike Zimmer. They include a DEQ wastewater report that isn’t used in regulations and a rule requiring child care workers to smile, LARA said.

LARA said it also has shed more than 1,400 forms it once used — a 62 percent cut in the department’s paperwork.

“Our customers are happy because (they) don’t have to fill it out,” Calley said. “We can act faster because we don’t have to process so much paper.”

ForeSee conducted the survey between Feb. 24 and March 22. In all, 1,466 business leaders opened surveys and 519 returned them, for a response rate of 35 percent.

Of respondents, 45 percent worked in manufacturing, 59 percent worked for companies with 100 or fewer employees and 10 percent worked for professional, scientific or technical companies, the state said.