For the second straight year, North Carolina has been ranked the second best state for business by Chief Executive Magazine.

The news is being touted by Gov. Bev Perdue and Keith Crisco, the state's commerce secretary, as further proof of North Carolina's business-friendly climate and quality workforce.

The rankings are based on surveys completed by 556 CEOs who were asked questions about each state's taxation and regulations, workforce and living environment.

"Not surprisingly, states with punitive tax and regulatory regimes are punished with lower rankings, and this can offset even positive scores on quality of living environment," the magazine notes in a write-up on this year's rankings.

"While state incentives are always welcome, what CEOs often seek are areas with consistent policies and regulations that allow them to plan, as well as intangible factors such as a state’s overall attitude toward business and the work ethic of its population."

Texas earned the top spot in this year's rankings. North Carolina was followed by Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, Indiana, Virginia and South Carolina.

So what to make of these rankings?

Well, it seems fair to note that CEOs as a group aren't exactly hurting right now.

Sec. of Commerce Keith Crisco will be in Person County this afternoon for an economic development announcement.

The 2 p.m. announcement will follow a meeting in Raleigh by the N.C. Commerce Department's Economic Investment Committee, which considers job-creation incentives grants.

The address in Roxboro where Crisco's announcement is taking place is also the site of a manufacturing facility for Eaton Corp., an Ohio-based company that also has operations in Raleigh, Morrisville and Youngsville.

Eaton makes electrical components and power systems for a range of different industries. It is providing the city of Raleigh with electric vehicle recharging stations.

The Roxboro facility, about 55 miles north of Raleigh, makes valvetrain components for the automotive industry.

Count Gary Doer, Canadian ambassador to the United States, among those who were impressed with how the Triangle handled NHL All-Star weekend.

During an interview this morning at downtown Raleigh's Cardinal Club, Doer said he'd heard nothing but praise from visiting Canadian hockey fans and NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, who he watched the All-Star game with.

"Three cheers to the community," Doer said.

Doer said he knew he was in good hands when he walked into the RBC Center and the band was playing Randy Bachman's "Taking Care of Business." Like Doer, Bachman is a native of the Canadian province of Manitoba.

(Doer was the province's premier before being named ambassador in 2009.)

Doer described Sunday as a "Chamber of Commerce Day," because of the weather and the hospitality.

"When you can golf in winter and watch hockey that's a Canadian's idea of a good time," he said.

North Carolina, already home to several large corporate data centers, could be about to get one more.

State officials will make a major economic development announcement in Rutherford County on Thursday at 11:30 a.m.

The site of the announcement, just off U.S. 74 in Forest City, is near a Rutherford County-owned park specifically designed to house data centers.

The Rutherford County Board of Commissioners voted today to give more than $1 million in incentives to Andale, LLC, a subsidiary of a parent company that wasn't disclosed.

North Carolina has rapidly become a hub for data centers, thanks partly to cheap and reliable electricity and cheap land. This summer, North Carolina lawmakers also approved new incentives aimed at luring even more data centers.

Mark Johnson, a spokesman for Gov. Bev Perdue's office, and Billy Warden, a Raleigh public relations executive who is listed as a contact for the event, declined to comment on the announcement.
 

Commerce Secretary Keith Crisco played a bigger-than-usual role in recruiting a Louisiana company to this region because the son of Gov. Bev Perdue also was involved with efforts to lure the corporate headquarters.

Perdue recused herself from the recruitment of IEM, our sister blog Under the Dome reports. That meant that Crisco made more decisions in attracting the risk-management firm, including the promise of as much as $9 million in tax breaks and grants.

Perdue's son, Garrett Perdue, worked on the deal as part of his job with the law firm of Womble Carlyle.

IEM and state officials announced Monday morning in Research Triangle Park that the risk-management firm would move its headquarters to RTP and create 430 jobs over the next six year. Perdue, who usually attends such announcements, stayed away.

Read the full Under the Dome report here.

State officials announced this morning that DuPont plans to add 10 employees at its Fayetteville facility to increase production of materials used in solar panels.

The Fayetteville Works Plant, which opened in 1971, already has about 500 employees and hundreds of contractors. DuPont announced last fall that it was reviewing sites in the U.S. and abroad to pick the best place to increase production of Tedlar, a film used to back solar
panels.

At a news conference this morning in Raleigh, Commerce secretary Keith Crisco and other officials announced that DuPont plans a $55 million expansion to the Fayetteville plant.

The company was offered $50,000 in incentives from the state's One North Carolina Fund.