179961 Resource 149176 155860 149257 1187550498422 1187624491156 Controlled Small Business News: Most Expensive States For Doing Business

New survey reveals most costly and least expensive states for business

If you want to know whether the state in which you run your business is costing you, the results of a recently released survey will give you an answer. Hawaii, New York and Alaska are the most expensive states for businesses, maintaining the top three spots for the second consecutive Milken Institute Cost-of-Doing-Business Index. All three states increased their overall year-over-year costs. A major factor in the rankings is the cost of electricity. South Dakota, meanwhile, maintained its position as the least-expensive state for business, decreasing its costs to 30 percent below the national average. The Cost-of-Doing-Business Index measures wage costs, taxes, electricity costs and real estate costs for industrial and office space. The biggest mover in this year’s index was Maine, moving up 11 spots to 17th from 28th, thanks in large part to higher electricity costs, which jumped from six percent above the national average in the 2006 rankings to 43 percent above the national average in this year’s rankings. Mississippi, which moved up eight places, also had an increase in electricity costs. Mississippi’s change in its ranking reflects other states’ abilities to contain or even decrease electricity costs during the same period. Of the states that moved down the rankings most, Michigan leads the pack in reining in its costs, moving from 13th place in the 2006 rankings down to 20th. Michigan had a slight increase in all of the rated factors, but dropped down because those states ranked near it had more pronounced increases. The Cost-of-Doing-Business Index indicates each state’s comparative advantages or disadvantages in attracting and retaining businesses. Each state is measured on the five individual categories, and those weighted scores are compiled to make the overall index. An index score of 100 means that the state is equal to the U.S. average in that particular category. This year, the states with the highest and lowest costs by category are: <blockquote dir="ltr" style="MARGIN-RIGHT: 0px">Wages - Highest: Connecticut; Lowest: South Dakota Taxes - Highest: Vermont; Lowest: New Hampshire Electricity costs - Highest: Hawaii; Lowest: Idaho Industrial space costs - Highest: Hawaii; Lowest: Iowa Office space costs - Highest: New York; Lowest: Iowa Ten Most Expensive 1 Hawaii  2 New York  3 Alaska  4 Massachusetts   5 Connecticut  6 California  7 New Jersey  8 Vermont  9 Delaware  10 Rhode Island Ten Least Expensive 50 South Dakota  49 Iowa  48 North Dakota  47 Idaho  46 South Carolina  45 Montana  44 Missouri  43 Vermont  42 Tennessee  41 Arkansas  </blockquote> 10 application/xml business news least expensive states most expensive states new survey small business small business news states for business false Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; Media Center PC 3.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) 127.0.0.1 127.0.0.1 mfmomper false true false false true 189572 false false true false false false true 149176 blog blogsite/FreedomVoice/web