Finance-based, social network WalletHub has released its 2015 list of the best cities in which to start a business, and cities in conservative states utterly dominate the list.
The list looked at the business climates for the 150 largest cities in the United States. First place went to Shreveport, Louisiana, and with the exception of Springfield, Missouri, the top 28 cities are all in states where Republicans control both the governor’s mansion and both houses of the state legislature. Even in Missouri, the legislature is deep red, with only Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon breaking up the Republican dominance.
In contrast, the bottom of the list tilts blue. Out of the bottom 25 cities, 18 are in states with total Democratic control (including 15 from California alone), while another four are from states where Democrats have two out of three of the state house, senate, and governor’s mansion. The only bottom-tier cities from solid-red states are Peoria and Scottsdale in Arizona as well as Pembroke Pines, Florida.
Bringing up the absolute bottom of the list are Newark and Jersey City, the only two New Jersey cities on the list. The awful showings for New Jersey and California comport with other rankings of how friendly or unfriendly various states are for business.
WalletHub’s calculations were based on 13 different factors related to how easy it would be to start up a new company, including availability of business loans, corporate tax rates, the five-year survival rate of new businesses, and the availability of potential employees (as well as how educated they are).
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