Doing Business in DC

DC Progress notes that Washington, DC has ranked 51st – dead last – in the annual Small Business Survival Index every year since the mid-1990s.

Part of the problem is that taxes and spending are both sky-high in DC. Per capita government spending exceeds that in any state, and is roughly double the national average. High corporate, income, and sales taxes have been very effective at driving away businesses to nearby Virginia and Maryland.

One of DC’s other problems is regulatory. The District is notorious for its thorough, exacting, and bureaucratic regulatory regime. Mayor Fenty and the City Council should ease the burden. It would save taxpayers money and encourage more businesses to locate in DC. The fixes that CEI’s Wayne Crews identifies for the federal government in his annual Ten Thousand Commandments also apply to DC and the states.