Another survey of business, and another set of results that’s anything but golden for California. Claremont McKenna College’s Rose Institute of State & Local Government today released the 17th annual Kosmont-Rose Institute Cost of Doing Business Survey. The Rose Institute, in partnership with Los Angeles-based Kosmont Companies, gathers business fees and a variety of tax rates from 421 selected cities across the United States.
Of the 20 most expensive cities in the country to do business, five are in California: Beverly Hills, Culver City, Los Angeles, Santa Monica, and San Francisco. None of the 20 least expensive cities are in California. Eight are in Washington state (Yakima, Kent, Everett, Vancouver, Federal Way, Olympia, Spokane, and Bellevue) and five are in Texas (Austin, Abilene, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, and Houston).
While some of the most expensive cities are ones you’d think of (Chicago, New York, and Philadelphia), a few are a surprise: Akron, Ohio (a retail business license fee of $112,500), Naperville, Illinois (a retail business license fee of $100,000), and Mobile and Birmingham (both Alabama cities have high sales tax rates).
Businesses do locate because of taxes, a fact that is lost on Democrats in Sacramento. A press release on the survey is available here. The full survey is available from the Rose Institute.
