Does Your State Put Unnecessary Burdens On Entrepreneurs And Small Businesses?

While we're on the subject of ridiculous regulations on entrepreneurs, I should mention that the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has just released its Small Business Survival Index 2008, an attempt to rank the 50 states based on the quality of the policy environment for entrepreneurs. What that means, given the SBEC's pro-free-market leanings, is that a good policy environment is determined by how much the government gets out of the way and does not drain wealth from businesses. So, the variables used in the report include income tax rates, state and local property tax rates, minimum wages, legal liability costs, and more. See where your state ranked.

The states at the top tend to be "red states" like South Dakota, Wyoming, and Texas, while those closer to the bottom are "blue states" like New Jersey, California, and Rhode Island. But I should point out that of the top 10, half actually went for Obama. In fact,  the states we could consider to be "purple" (which were pretty much all blue this year) do very well, and are all in the top 30 at least.  Virginia, Colorado and Nevada are all in the top 10.

There are a few anomalies, if we continue to look at this through the red state/blue state lens.

Washington: This deep blue state ranked fifth. It seems to rank so high because Washington does not have its own income or capital gains taxes, and has low growth in government spending over the next six years.

North Carolina: This high-growth state that usually votes Republican apparently has alot of government interference with entrepreneurs, as it came it at 39th on the list, despite having fairly low sales and property taxes. It ranked far down on the lists for all corporate and income tax rates, 37th for number of health insurance mandates, 42nd for crime rate, 37th for state gas tax, and 38th for number of government employees.