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IN OTHER NEWS, KIDS LIKE CANDY

July 07, 2005

A University of Iowa professor has reviewed rankings of state business climates put out by conservative and libertarian think tanks. The professor, Peter Fisher, reports a shocking conclusion: these reports tend to favor states with low tax and regulatory burdens.

Who knew?

Tax Analysts subscriber-only edition gives the astounding details of Mr. Fisher's report, which is published by the Economic Policy Institute ("Research and Ideas for Working People"):

Fisher asserts that all five of the indexes don't look at factors actually related to growth and that they don't do a good job of measuring the factors they do consider. In all five cases, he says, scientific methods take a back seat to political ideology, and business largely ignores the results.

In contrast with the Economic Policy Institute, which in its efforts on behalf of "working people" uses only scientific analysis entirely untainted by any preconceived notions of how the world works...

The Small Business Survival Index is intended to rank states by how well their policies encourage entrepreneurial activity and the growth of small businesses, but Fisher says the index "is largely a measure of how heavily a state taxes or regulates business."

Yep, no connection between state taxes and regulation and business climate. It's all about bike paths.

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