Michigan group touts Ohio's business progress

Ohio was recently ranked by CNBC as the top state in the nation for doing business. More praise for the Buckeye State is coming in. The latest comes the state up north after a Michigan non-profit think tank published a piece saying that Ohio is "eating our lunch," economically. "With only a few dozen months of exceptions during the late 1990s and 2010s, Michigan has had consistently higher unemployment than our neighbor," said the Mackinac Center for Public Policy on its website, "As of June 2026, the unemployment rate was 5.0 percent in Michigan and 3.6 percent in Ohio. Since 2007, Michigan's per capita personal income has been $796.25 lower than Ohio's on average." The reasons Michigan has lost ground to Ohio are simple, said the posting by Asher Boekestein, a communications intern at the Mackinac Center. "Michigan is no longer the competitive state for business it once was, while Ohio has adjusted its taxes and regulations to attract business and growth," Boekestein, wrote. And Ohio has a lower income tax, he added. "When it does collect tax dollars, Ohio has spent significantly less of that revenue on corporate welfare," Bokenstein wrote. "From 2000 to 2025, Michigan gave out nine separate mega-deal business subsidies worth more than $1 billion, and at least 62 deals worth more than $100 million. " In 2023, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed legislation cutting almost a third of the state's regulatory code, the essay said. The group Americans for Prosperity estimates that the reforms will save $44 million over the next decade. " [Michigan Gov.] Gretchen Whitmer has not moved to enact a similar law, and overregulation continues to hold the Michigan economy back," wrote Boekestein. Ohio, with a population of about 11.9 million is ranked seventh nationally, with Michigan, at about 10.1 million, ranked 10th. DeWine accepts the complement from the coming from a rival. "Whether we're competing to win a football game or an economic development project, victory is always sweeter when Ohio tops Michigan, but our winning record goes much farther than the Ohio/Michigan line," DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney told The Center Square. "Being named America's Top State for Business by CNBC this year means Ohio is not just outperforming Michigan; we're outperforming every state in the country."