The Kosmont Companies and the Rose Institute of State and Local Government at Claremont McKenna College present the Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey. The Survey contains a vast amount of data about fees, taxes, costs, and incentives that affect business in more than 400 communities nationwide. It is especially useful to businesses contemplating a move. Since its inception, the Survey has added features to make it an even stronger tool for the business community and policymakers.
The Survey examines more than 250 cities in California, and more than 150 cities out of state. Furthermore, the Rose Institute has added GIS maps displaying the cost rating of cities in California, some of which appear in the executive summary. This addition facilitates the visualization of California's "cost climate" by Kosmont-Rose Survey customers. Finally, the formula has been updated to more accurately reflect contemporary costs of doing business.
The Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey is the authoritative guide for comparing communities and in making fiscally prudent development and site location decisions. The core of the Survey is made up of city profiles that display tax information and economic incentives about specific communities. The Survey gives communities nationwide exposure for business opportunities, economic development, and comprehensive tax information. It has been cited frequently and in detail by sources such as The Wall Street Journal, and is heavily relied upon by a myriad of business leaders and journals.
Ordering Information
The complete Survey can be ordered as a CD-ROM. The entire report includes all the city profiles, the executive summary, the GIS maps of cost ratings in California, the cost comparison index, and an index of taxes by state. Alternatively, you have the option to order the executive summary (which includes one profile of your choice) with additional individual cities. The partial Survey can be delivered either by email or as a CD-ROM. Please note that all CD-ROM sales are subject to S&H and sales tax.
The Story of the Survey
Commenting on the commanding position of the Survey among real estate and business planning materials, Mr. Larry Kosmont said, "When we introduced the Survey years ago, we were not sure how useful it would be. But each year we have found more and more cities using it to evaluate their attractiveness vis a vis other cities. It is being used by corporations contemplating a move to sharpen their focus and narrow their options. Developers use it to see where they have the most profitable opportunities. In short, it hasn't taken long for our annual Survey to become a 'must-read' in the business community."
For the first several years of its publication, the Survey covered only major California communities. Now it has been greatly expanded and covers more than 250 communities in California and over 100 major cities and markets nationwide including, Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Las Vegas, Miami, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake City, and Washington D.C.
Over the years, the Survey has several times been among the first to identify changes and evolutions in the business environment. Several years ago, for example, the Survey commented on a growing willingness by public-private partnership has indeed flourished in recent years, and "today there is scarcely a real estate development of any size that does not depend on some level of cooperation between a private developer and one or more levels of government," Mr. Kosmont states.
More so than in recent years, the 2008 Survey reveals the tendency for older and more populous cities near the coasts or in the Great Lakes to be more expensive for business than their smaller, suburban counterparts. The 2008 list enables a more accurate year-over-year comparison for any given city. This year's Survey incorporates a new weighting system in order to reflect rising energy costs for a more accurate representation of business costs. The methodology changes will enable greater analysis of how cities change over time, enhancing the power of the Survey in years to come.
In the past when cost ratings were assigned, the Survey considered how each individual city compared to the mean value of all the cities for that year. In the 2008 release we used the median value from the previous year. By using the median value instead of the mean, cities stand more on their own merits, and their relative position in the Survey is less prone to minor changes in the other cities. Changes in one city are prevented from affecting other cities even if the other cities have changed none of their policies.
