| Click for printable version
Click to send to a friend
| TOP BUSINESS FRIENDLY STATES
Ranking of state's climate for small businesses.
The rankings are based on state conditions in 17 indicators, dominated by taxes and factors like workers' compensation insurance costs which affect businesses' bottom lines.
1. Nevada
2. South Dakota
3. Washington
4. Wyoming
5. Florida
6. Texas
7. New Hampshire
8. Alabama
9. Mississippi
10. Tennessee
-- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | Tuesday, August 14, 2001
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal SMALL BUSINESS: Nevada tops list again Nevada is ranked No. 1 as having the most friendly business atmosphere
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
CARSON CITY -- Nevada ranks first in the nation in a new ranking of how friendly states are to small businesses and entrepreneurs. The ranking by the Washington-based Small Business Survival Committee was based on 17 factors it said can harm a state's business environment, and which state and local governments have influence over. They include the burden imposed by a range of taxes -- personal income, capital gains, corporate, property, sales, death, unemployment, health insurance -- plus other factors like the price of electricity, workers' compensation costs, crime rates and minimum wages. Nevada has no personal income tax and is in the low-to-moderate range in many other tax areas. In addition, it's a "right-to-work" state -- meaning union membership can't be mandated. U.S. Labor Department statistics show that most of the top states in personal income don't have right-to-work laws, while most of the lowest states in income growth do. Raymond Keating, the author of the Small Business Survival Committee study, said how states treat small businesses is important because the bulk of American employers are smaller companies. "In an increasingly mobile and competitive national economy, differences in government-imposed costs of doing business can make a huge difference between whether a state grows economically or falls behind," said the president of the Small Business Survival Committee, Darrell McKigney. Keating said the group considers the ideal business environment one of low taxes, limited government and restrained bureaucratic intervention. At the other end of the scale, Washington, D.C., ranked last while Rhode Island ranked 50th, Hawaii was 49th, and Maine was 48th.
| 
