FSB Who loves small business best? 2006
Which states are low on taxes and light on government regulations? Exclusive rankings for FSB.com from the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council.*
Low taxes**
1 South Dakota 10.01
2 Nevada 12.02
3 Wyoming 13.60
4 Washington 15.85
5 Florida 16.82
6 Mississippi 19.30
7 Alaska 20.37
8 Alabama 20.47
9 Texas 21.18
10 Michigan 22.05
11 Colorado 22.17
12 Tennessee 23.91
13 South Carolina 24.75
14 Indiana 25.28
15 Delaware 26.16
16 Missouri 26.66
17 Arizona 26.73
18 Illinois 26.82
19 Arkansas 26.88
20 New Hampshire 27.02
21 Virginia 27.18
22 Pennsylvania 27.19
23 Maryland 27.29
24 Georgia 27.92
25 Oklahoma 29.19
26 New Mexico 29.51
27 Louisiana 30.25
28 Connecticut 31.05
29 Wisconsin 31.58
30 Montana 32.17
31 Utah 32.44
32 Kansas 32.58
33 North Dakota 32.96
34 West Virginia 33.26
35 Nebraska 34.21
36 Oregon 34.61
37 Ohio 35.31
38 Idaho 35.33
39 Vermont 35.54
40 North Carolina 35.63
41 Massachusetts 35.68
42 Kentucky 36.81
43 New York 37.65
44 Hawaii 37.87
45 Iowa 39.61
46 Rhode Island 40.18
47 Maine 40.26
48 California 40.46
49 New Jersey 41.86
50 Minnesota 42.14
51 Washington, D.C. 49.81
Footnotes:
* SBE Council, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit which advocates for reduced government taxes and regulations on small business, tends to lobby for the Republican agenda when it comes to taxes and regulations.
** States were scored based on their taxes on personal and corporate income, capital gains, property, sales, unemployment, gas, Internet and other taxes. For details, see "How we ranked the states."
Low energy costs
1 Kentucky
2 West Virginia
3 Missouri
How we ranked the states
Which states are low on taxes and light on government regulations? In these exclusive rankings for FSB.com, the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council, a nonprofit advocacy group in Washington, D.C. used their Small Business Survival Index to rate the 50 states and Washington, D.C. according to some of the major government-imposed or -related costs affecting investment, entrepreneurship, and business. SBE Council, which advocates for reduced government taxes and regulations on small business, supports a mostly Republican agenda. (more)

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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.