Top 10 States for Low Business Taxes and Regulations via Urbanland

To jump-start their economies and create more jobs, states increasingly are trying to spur private sector business growth and investment. One way some political leaders are doing this is by reducing business taxes and government regulations. A number of states have taken steps in the last few years to reduce regulatory burdens on businesses, as well as reform tax credit and incentive programs to better reward private investment.

The reasoning behind this strategy is simple: Taxes and regulations affect the decisions and competitive positioning of large and small businesses alike. According to the Tax Foundation, a nonpartisan public policy organization in Washington, D.C., “the most competitive tax systems create the fewest economic distortions by enforcing the most simple, pro-growth tax systems characterized by broad bases and low rates.”

Recently, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce published a report called “Enterprising States 2011” that ranked states in a variety of performance metrics, including their tax and regulatory environments. Those environments were compared in five ways: overall state and local tax burdens, corporate taxes, small-business costs, state government budget gaps, and cost-of-living indices.

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