PA ranks 27th in 2009 Small Business Survival Index

The Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council has released its "Small Business Survival Index 2009: Ranking the Policy Environment for Entrepreneurship Across the Nation."

Pennsylvania ranks No. 27 on the ranking of the 50 states plus the District of Columbia.

SBE Council chief economist Raymond J. Keating, author of the study, said: "Policy matters to the growth and success of small business. The 'Small Business Survival Index' gets at the public policy costs and trends that affect - directly or indirectly - entrepreneurship and small businesses. These measures should matter to everyone because small businesses, of course, drive innovation, economic growth and job creation. If we want to get our economy back on a solid, robust growth track, then we need pro-entrepreneur policies at the federal, state and local levels."

Pennsylvania should rank much higher on the list, but seven years of lousy fiscal and tax policies on the part of the Rendell Administration and its allies in the Pennsylvania Legislature have left the state in the bottom half of the rankings.

SBE Council Releases 'Index 2009' Ranking the States