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The firm Public Policy Polling just released survey results of Americans’ perceptions of the 50 states. The top five most popular states are:

#1       Hawaii

#2        Colorado

#3       Tennessee

#4       South Dakota

#5       Virginia

During a recent conversation with primary employers, one of them said “Certainty is our new religion now.” This statement received universal agreement.

We were talking about how businesses are approaching all decisions but especially the siting of new facilities. The point of this saying is that in the current political and economic environment companies won’t take unnecessary risks. Business decision-makers are operating in extremely tight decision windows and won’t accept risks, especially from slow moving or unfriendly governments. Companies need to know that a decision will get made in a timely manner with a minimum of political drama. If they can’t get that in one locale, they’ll drop that community from the list and move on.

So, to be competitive at attracting and keeping base employers, communities must provide certainty and speed.

The question “How’s business?” is one of my favorite conversation starters. The answers I receive give me an overall sense about what is going on in the business community. The short version of what I’m hearing from small companies is that the economy feels better but isn’t great and uncertainty is causing them to be cautious.

This general sentiment was borne out in a Gallup poll of small businesses released last week. A weak economy and lack of demand were cited as reasons for not hiring new people but specifically highlighted by Gallup were rising health care costs and government regulations. The result is that 85 percent of respondents said they are not looking to hire.

A takeaway from the poll is that significant uncertainty remains. My guess is that will be the case until the presidential election this fall and even beyond as people sort out the policy direction of the next administration.

The discussion continues about whether or not Colorado State University should build a new, larger football stadium on the main campus. I blogged about it last month and wrote about it in a column in Sunday’s Coloradoan. Don’t look for any piercing insights! The column can be summed up thusly: Hats off to CSU leaders for thinking big and lots of questions still remain to be answered.

The Fort Collins Coloradoan ran a story today about CSU starting the process to hire architects, engineers and project managers to design and oversee construction of the stadium. University officials note that it’s for a ‘potential’ project.

I don’t know if the project is potential or real, but I do know that cocktail parties and any other gathering of two or more people in Fort Collins have gotten a lot more interesting! It’s the top topic and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

Colorado’s minimum wage went up on January 1 by 28 cents to $7.64 per hour. Article XVIII, Section 15, of the Colorado Constitution requires the Colorado minimum wage to be adjusted annually for inflation, as measured by the Consumer Price Index. All the forms and information you need can be found on the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment website.

Minimum wage laws are very popular with the public. However, that doesn’t mean they’re good policy. I was reminded of that recently while talking to a local restaurateur. Forcing him to pay more, especially as he was coping with the recession, was a hardship on him AND his employees (some of whose hours were reduced) AND the people he couldn’t afford to hire. To remain in business, he can’t just absorb those costs and in the downturn he certainly couldn’t pass them on to his customers. His options were pretty limited, so he had to hold the line on payroll by expecting more from fewer people.

This is an example of the unintended consequences of mandates. The Chamber supports allowing the market between employers and employees to determine wages and opposes government mandated wage rates and benefits, which are intrusive and create a financial burden for small business in particular.

For more information on the topic, here’s a newly released Issues Brief by the National Center for Policy Analysis titled ‘Minimum Wage Myths.’