Scorecard rally cry? Thank heaven for Jax

The Tampa Bay area improved one notch in its regional economic scorecard, but if not for Jacksonville it would be at the bottom of the bracket.

In releasing the 10th and latest version of the semiannual report, the eight-county Tampa Bay Partnership pointed to the step up to fifth place among six Southern peer metropolitan areas, with six different factors improving, declining or maintaining across the board. Only a one-point margin separated Tampa Bay and Jacksonville, with first-place Raleigh/Durham, N.C., far outperforming others.

If the partnership had wanted to spin its report, it could have claimed fourth place since Atlanta and Charlotte technically tied for third, right behind Dallas. But there's no getting around the fact that the Bay area's annual average wage declined while all five other metros saw increases.