The Tax Foundation has released the 2009 version of the State Business Tax Climate Index (SBTCI) as a tool for lawmakers, the media, and individuals to gauge how their states' tax systems compare. The 2009 SBTCI seeks to measure the tax component of each state's business climate and does not allow states with poor business tax regimes to hide behind low business tax burdens.

Good state tax systems levy low, flat rates on the broadest bases possible, and they treat all taxpayers the same. The SBTCI rewards  states that apply these principles in five important areas of taxation: major business taxes, individual income taxes, sales taxes, unemployment insurance taxes, and property taxes.

The 2009 SBTCI compares the states on five separate aspects of their tax systems and then adds the results up to a final, overall ranking. This approach has the advantage of rewarding states on particularly strong aspects of their tax systems (or penalizing them on particularly weak aspects) while also measuring the general competitiveness of their overall tax systems. The result is a score that can be compared to other states' scores.

The new edition, the sixth, represents the tax climate of each state as of July 1, 2008, the first day of the standard 2009 fiscal year. It is available free at http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22658.html.

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