State Business Climate Comparison
 Picking the best, least cost, pro-business location is often a confusing and complex task for companies. As a result of Pollina Corporate’s extensive history of providing location services to our corporate clients, we have established a format for evaluation of whether a state is considered pro-business. The comparison examines 28 factors relative to states’ efforts to be pro-business. This analysis of 28 state controlled factors is, in our experience, reflective of how most corporate executives view states.

The Pollina Corporate State Business Climate Comparison takes a comprehensive, two part approach to evaluating and ranking states. Part I is based on a large array of factors, all controlled by state governments. This part is called Labor, Taxes and Other Factors. The second part of the evaluation examines state government-controlled factors based on incentive programs and state economic development departments. This second part is referred to as Incentives and State Economic Development Agency Factors.

Labor, Taxes and Other Factors
• Human Resources
• Right To Work
• Unemployment and Workers Compensation Insurance
• Corporate and Individual Taxes
• State Infrastructure
• Utility Rates
• Quality of Life

Economic Development Agency Factors
• Quality and Effectiveness of Economic Development Incentives
• Quality of State Economic Development Organization
• Evaluation of State Economic Development Website
• Marketing Efforts
• Ability to respond to new companies
• Ability to respond to existing companies

Understanding how a state compares to the rest of the nation is an important first step in improving the effectiveness of a region. By using the Pollina Corporate State Business Climate Comparison you will gain insight into how your state compares on a national level. Since most site selection projects start at the state evaluation level, it is important for a community or region to understand the state’s strengths and weaknesses. This information is essential to developing your local marketing program.