Sixty percent of respondents said they were satisfied with city government. Satisfaction with county government improved, as 55 percent said they were satisfied and only 9 percent were dissatisfied, compared to 17 percent last year. Companies were also the most satisfied with state government since the question was first posed in 1991. This year, affordable housing and population growth were most often cited, while last year's number one issue, infrastructure problems including traffic and air transportation, dropped to 17 percent from 35 percent. Education moved up 13 percent from 6 percent last year and was cited by more large firms than small companies.
Small companies believe government regulations are more problematic than do large firms.
Only 37 percent of firms have foreign sales or operations, compared with 43 percent over the past six years. Fewer manufacturing and services companies in this year's sample are doing business abroad compared to past years, while the number of firms in the trade sector doing foreign business increased. Western Europe is the most popular region for foreign sales and marketing, with 25 percent of companies selling there and deriving 27 percent of international sales revenue. No responding company said it planned to pull out of the region. Twenty-five percent of county firms do business in Canada, but that nation's economic stagnation is having a somewhat negative effect on the opinion of county firms about future expansion there.