Louisiana beats national average in economic ranking

New Orleans CityBusiness, Mar 12, 2008

Low personal income, business and property taxes helped Louisiana earn 21st place - better than the national average - on a national economic ranking of all 50 states.

Washington, D.C.-based The American Legislative Exchange Council, in its first economic ranking of the states, said Louisiana's place was earned by "a mix of mostly good and some bad economic policies."

"Contributing to the state's positive economic outlook were low personal income, business and property taxes, the lack of an estate tax or minimum wage and the state's right-to-work status," ALEC said. "On the downside,Louisiana's economy suffers from high sales taxes, high workers compensation costs and one of the worst tort liability systems in the nation."

For more information, go to www.alec.org.

ALEC is the nation's largest nonpartisan, individual membership organization of state legislators, with more than 2,400 legislator members from all 50 states and 86 former members serving in Congress.