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- California plus the Northeast (aside from New
Hampshire) are the most unfriendly overall. Add in the trio of Midwest
industrial states (Illinois, Michigan, Ohio) plus Washington and Hawaii
and you get the full list of seriously unfriendly states, with “D+” or
worse grades.
- The list of best states also includes few
surprises: Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho, Utah, Virginia and several other
Southern states.
- Virginia (grade of A) far outdistances Maryland
(C-), notwithstanding the views of Washington Post business
writers who often chide the Old Dominion for not emulating the economic
policies of its neighbor to the north.
- Other states, even in the Northeast, tend to do
OK in one or two areas—New Jersey and Vermont avoid piling costs onto
new hiring, Connecticut and Illinois are not entirely hopeless on
zoning, and so forth. The exception is California: it’s awful on
everything.
California
and Maryland bad; Texas and Virgina good. All the drama of
watching a rabbit pulled out of a fishbowl. A survey that wasn't
necessary. This is interesting however (and true)
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Small businesses care almost twice as much about
licensing regulations as they do about tax rates when rating the
business-friendliness of their state or local government.
Everyone knows high taxes depress business
activity; it is libertarians who go on to offer a critique of licensure
laws, and never has it seemed so relevant.
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