I must confess to being a bit confused by this story about North Carolina Commerce Secretary Sharon Decker’s visit to Craven County.  Evidently, Decker argued for an increase in the number of state employees and a new marketing campaign, both aimed at attracting more visitors and business to the state.  And then she said, “Currently we are the sixth most visited state, but funded at forty-seventh in the country.”

When I read this, it sounds like she’s arguing that we should increase funding.  But coming in sixth when your spending is at forty-seventh sounds like pretty good bang for the buck to me.  Could it be that more spending by the government (like in those forty-six states spending more than us) isn’t really the best way to attract business after all?