T

he Laffer State Competitive Environment ranked Georgia the most competitive of the 50 states in its annual analysis of seven economic factors at work in the states as of March 2006. The report was released in July 2006 by San Diego- based Laffer Associates, an economic research and consulting firm catering to institutional investors. /
   States are ranked according to their performance in seven aspects of a state's economic environment: tax changes affecting the tax burden; the after- tax incentive rate for various income types; the "progressivity" of a state's personal income tax; the property tax burden; the general sales tax burden; the combined burden of other state and local taxes; and such variables as state and local debt burden, workers' comp costs, number of state and local government employees and the quality of the state's tort reform system. /
   The Laffer model is similar to the index used in Site Selection's annual Competitiveness Award, which uses 10 criteria – most of which are based on data resident in the publication's proprietary New Plant Database (see the Top 10 States in each contest below). Note: Six of Laffer's Top 10 also appeared in Site Selection's Top 10 ranking, which put Georgia in seventh place. /
   Laffer's analysis says this of Georgia's performance: "Georgia has achieved its good rating through good performance virtually across the board in the seven economic factors, and notably in the category of Tax Change, where the state has reduced its relative tax burden for four straight years through 2005. This comes over a four- year period during which states as a whole have raised taxes each of those years. Georgia also offers attractive income incentive rates, very low taxes in virtually every other category and good scores in our Other- Important- Variables category." /