I'm skeptical of the new KPMG study on the lowest-cost metro areas for business. Or at least I suspect it doesn't tell the whole story.

Of 20-plus U.S. metro areas with more than 2 million people, metro Baltimore ranked fourth in a study that gauged costs for labor, taxes, real estate, utilities and other factors. The only large U.S. metros with lower business costs than Baltimore were Tampa, Atlanta and Miami. According to the KPMG study, Phoenix, Denver and Northern Virginia are all more expensive for business than Baltimore. Baltimore is even lower cost for manufacturing than Phoenix or Denver, according to the study.

The scores, rendered as an index, are all fairly close. Fewer than 10 index percentage points separate the most expensive metro, San Francisco, from Tampa. Baltimore beats out Philly, Northern Virginia and eight more metros by 2 percentage points or less. The other point to be made is that most businesses, when looking to open an operation, don't confine their searches to areas with major-league sports teams, which is basically what this study looks at. They look at smaller towns with lower costs.

On the plus side for Baltimore, this study makes no attempt to look at the size and quality of the local workforce, a category in which Maryland scores very well against other states. I suspect Baltimore is a higher-cost area for business than KPMG suggests, but for many businesses that higher cost is worth it.