(The Center Square) – Colorado is one of the better states in the country for political and economic freedom, according to a recently released study which ranks the state at #11.
The SEL Index of Freedom rankings highlight the advantages and drawbacks of doing business in any given state based on government efficiency, regulatory freedom, and energy resiliency.
“As our company continues to grow and we plan where to build facilities and hire employees, we consider multiple factors, including this examination of economic and political freedom,” SEL Founder and President Edmund O. Schweitzer III said in a press release. “We’ve found this analysis to be a valuable input when considering where to expand our footprint.”
The SEL rankings are unique in that they consider the results of rankings from other organizations in different categories.
For example, the study determined government efficiency ratings with a weighted percentage of three different studies; 45% of that determination came from the ALEC-Laffer Rich States, Poor States study, where Colorado ranked 17th.
In the Rich States, Poor States study, Colorado got high marks for lacking an inheritance tax, its top marginal corporate tax rate of 4.55% (ranked ninth), and its low tax burden outside income and sales taxes (ranked fifth). However, it lost points for not being a right-to-work state and for having a $14.42 hourly minimum wage, among the highest in the country.
Similarly, the study looked at four reports to determine regulatory freedom, weighing them by different amounts. The CATO Freedom in the 50 States survey, which comprised 30% of the score, ranked Colorado 19th in overall freedom — weighing both economic and personal freedom.
Colorado got positive rankings for occupational freedom (ranked second), cannabis freedom (ranked 11th), and marriage freedom (ranked first) while performing poorly in campaign finance freedom (49th), tobacco freedom (48th), and local taxation (45th).
Plus, the score weighted three studies to determine its energy resiliency score. This included energy reliability rankings from the Energy Information Administration, where Colorado received better-than-average marks for having fewer power outages than the national average.
Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota, and Arizona were the five best-ranked states in these SEL rankings, while the bottom five were: Hawaii, Vermont, New York, California, and Maine.
