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The best and worst states for small business

小本生意的旺市與淡市

Red tape blues

繁文縟節讓人憂郁

Small businesses fret less about taxes than over-regulation

小本生意擔心監管過度問題多過稅收

IAN TONER, an architect in Philadelphia, recentlywent to city offices for a permit to build a stoop for a client's home. The city, he learned, hadjust imposed new requirements:he would have to get maps from gas, electric, water and otherutilities to ensure the stoop would not disturb their underground lines and then resubmit hisapplication. A process he thought would take a day took more than two weeks.

最近，費城建筑師伊恩·托納前往市政府辦公室為其客戶獲得房屋門廊建設許可證。伊恩了解到，費城剛剛頒布了新的要求：申請者得提交天然氣、電氣、水氣等公司的地圖，確保門廊不會影響地下線，然后重新提交申請。他原本以為這個過程只需花費一天，而事實上卻花了大概兩個禮拜。

That's not all. Other new rules require that he prove that his builder has general liability,workers'compensation and car insurance, and has paid all his taxes. Four times a year he mustset aside a half day to ensure he is paying the state's and city's myriad taxes correctly. MrToner doesn't question the need for rules and taxes; what galls him is the time and hassleinvolved in complying with them. “The information exists all over the place and the burden is onme not just to gather it but interpret it. I'm not going to leave here because of this, butthey're all things that could turn a person off of coming here.”

這還不是全部的。其他新的條例要求，申請者還要證明建筑工人享有責任保險、勞工補償以及汽車保險，并且全部交過稅。一年四次，他得留出半天時間來確保他準確支付了州政府以及市政度各種繁雜的稅。托納先生并不是在糾結這些條例和稅收的必要性;讓他覺得受到羞辱的是遵守背后所花費的時間與麻煩。“信息隨處可見，我所承受的壓力不僅僅是去收集這些信息，更多的是去解釋。我不打算因為這個就離開，但是那些卻是阻礙人們來此的力量。”

America's states and cities have traditionally tried to attract businesses by offering them taxbreaks and other cash incentives. Yet there may be a more effective way, and one which putsno strain on stretched budgets: make life simpler.

沿襲傳統，美國的州和城市通過稅收減免政策和其他的現金獎勵措施來盡量吸引招商。但是，或許還有另外一種更有效的方法，不對緊張的預算施壓，即生活更簡單。

Thumbtack, a website that matches customers to businesses, and the Kauffman Foundation, athink-tank, asks thousands of small businesses annually about local requirements for hiring,regulations, zoning, licences, health insurance and training. They have enough data to compile(somewhat subjective) “business climate” grades for 38 states and 82 cities.

美國一家本地服務網上交易市場—Thumbtack(圖釘)，以及發揮智囊團作用的考夫曼基金會每年會向成百上千小本生意打聽情況，詢問當地對于招聘、規章制度、分區制、健康保險以及上崗培訓的一些要求。他們有足夠的數據對美國38個州以及82個城市編譯“商業環境”(有點主觀)。

One surprising finding is how little local tax rates matter. Nearly two-thirds of respondents saythey pay their “fair share” of taxes, which the survey-takers reckon means they don't feelover- or undertaxed. But many complain about the difficulty of complying with complexregulations: this was a strong predictor of how small businesses rank their states.

令人吃驚的是，當地稅收無關痛癢。近六成受訪者稱，他們支付問卷者認為的不高也不低的稅收。但是許多人抱怨遵循復雜法規的難處：這是一個很強烈地預兆，表明了小本生意如何去評價他們所在的州。

To be sure, low-tax states such as Texas generally score well, while high-tax states such asCalifornia and Illinois flunk their tests. This may be because the kind of politicians who like hightaxes also like bossing people around. But not always. Minnesota, a high-tax state, earns arespectable “B” for business climate, partly because it is easy to start a business there.Washington and Florida, both low-tax states, earn a “C” and a “C+”. Entrepreneurs faultWashington's harsh zoning laws and gripe that in Florida new firms must jump through hoopslike dolphins at SeaWorld.

可以肯定的是，像德克薩斯州這樣低稅收的地方通常排名靠前，評價高;相比而言，想加州和伊利諾斯州這樣高稅收的卻未能博得民心。或許是因為喜歡高稅收的政治家們很喜歡發號施令。但也有的特例，比如，明尼蘇達州稅收高，卻贏得了一個令人尊敬的“B”級商業環境等級;可能是因為這里創業很容易。像華盛頓和佛羅里達這樣低稅收的，卻分別得了一個“C”和一個“C+”。企業家把責任歸咎于華盛頓苛刻的分區制，還抱怨佛羅里達州的新公司就像海洋世界里海豚跳鐵圈一樣。

The lesson for politicians is: “no matter what else you do, make things easy,” says Jon Lieber ofThumbtack. “This may seem obvious but a lot of governments don't do it right. Don't require aplumber to spend two days at city hall pulling permits when he could be doing jobs.”

來自圖釘的約翰·烈博說，政治家得到的教訓是：“不管你做了什么，簡化它們。”他繼續說，“這看起來顯而易見，但很多政府官員卻無法做到。不要指望水管工會花兩天的時間在市政廳請求許可證，特別是在他們還可以做別的事的時候。”

Too often, state websites are confusing and bureaucrats unhelpful. Dennis Kessler, anaccountant in New Jersey, says he usually can't get through on the telephone to the relevantdepartment. When he does, the information is often misleading or incomplete. He recentlyspent 30 hours trying to help a client change its corporate status without getting a differentfederal tax-identification number—only to discover that this is impossible.

州政府網站時常讓人費解，而且官僚們常常無所用處。新澤西的會計丹尼斯認為，通常，他無法打通相關部門的電話。當他打通的時候，回饋的信息往往是讓人誤解的或者不完整。最近，他花了30個小時幫助一名客戶在未獲得不同的聯邦納稅人識別號的情況下去改變法人地位，但最后他發現一切都是徒勞的。

Licensing rules are a headache. In theory, they protect the public from incompetence, which isuseful if you are hiring a doctor. But increasingly they protect incumbents from competition—the requirement to have a licence raises an occupation's wages by 18%, according to MorrisKleiner and Alan Krueger, two economists. In the 1950s less than 5% of workers required statelicences; now 35% do.

許可證管理是一件很頭痛的事。經濟學家莫里斯和奧蘭認為，理論上講，這些制度保障了大眾，特別是當你雇傭了一名醫生，它們可以避免無能醫生。漸漸地，這些制度保護現任者不受競爭力的影響;即對執照的要求使得工資上漲18個百分點。在20世紀50年代，不到5%的工人需要證明，現在增加到35%。

Some make no sense. Celeste Kelly, a horse lover, began offering horse massage, a subject shehad studied privately, in 2006; she charges $55 per session. In 2012 the Arizona StateVeterinary Medical Examining Board ordered her to “cease and desist” or face heavy fines andpossible criminal charges. According to the Institute for Justice (IJ), a libertarian law firmwhich is suing the board on her behalf, Arizona does not require vets to learn massage, and MsKelly may offer it for free; she simply can't charge for it unless she's a vet. “Veterinarians Iknow think it's ridiculous,” she complains. “It's their political arm that has crafted legislationto be self-protective.”

一些制度純屬無稽之談。騎馬愛好者克萊斯特·凱里開始提供為馬按摩的服務，這項服務是她于2006年個人研究的;按摩一次55美元。2012年，亞利桑那州獸醫醫學研究委員會要求凱里停止這項服務，否則將面臨高價罰款以及牢獄之災。據司法部部門，一家持自由論的律師事務所幫助凱里控告該委員會，亞利桑那州并沒有要求獸醫要學按摩，而且凱里小姐也可能會免費提供該服務;除非她是獸醫，不然她不能收費。凱里抱怨道，“我所認識的獸醫覺得這很荒唐。這是他們獲得自保的政治手段。”

State licensing regimes vary widely. Louisiana requires licences for 70% of low-wageoccupations, according to IJ, including barber, bartender and cosmetologist. In Wyoming, it is amore modest 24%. In Hawaii, licences require an average of 724 days of experience andeducation; in Pennsylvania, 113. Enforcement is uneven, too.

許可證體制變化莫測。依據司法部門，路易斯安那州要求包括理發師、酒保以及美容師在內的占70%的低收入職業持有許可證明。在懷俄明州，該比例較少，為24%。在夏威夷州，執照獲得的資格要求是工作經歷加教育經歷724天;在賓夕法尼亞州，113天。執行過程更是入目不堪。

Changes to regulations have little effect on economic growth in the short run—cyclicalinfluences such as the state of the housing market or the fortunes of a particular industry(high-tech in California, oil in Texas) matter more. But in the long run, business-friendlinessmakes a difference: one study found that states that rank better on indices of taxes, costs andregulations enjoy stronger job growth, after filtering out the influence of industry compositionand the weather. Globally, countries that rank higher in the World Bank's surveys of the easeof doing business grow faster.

從短期看，條規的變化對經濟增長無影響，而周期性的影響因素比如房地產市場的狀態或者一個特定行業的財富積累(加州的高科技，德克薩斯州的石油)，卻更重要。但是，從長期看，商業友好型卻有不同：一項研究發現，排除行業類別組成與天氣因素影響，稅收、成本和監管指數排名較前的州享有更強的就業增長。全球范圍內，在世界銀行一項關于做生意的方便性的調查中，排名更靠前的過家發展更快。

Lowering barriers to entry for new businesses gives consumers more choice and cheaperprices. A gourmet-food-truck fad began in Los Angeles with $2 Korean tacos in 2008, and hasthrived because the city is flexible about where such trucks can park. By contrast, Chicagoforbids food trucks from operating within 200 feet of a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, andrequires them to have a GPS to ensure compliance, which makes life very hard for them in thedowntown business district.

降低創業的門檻讓消費者享有更多的選擇，更實惠的價格。一股美食車潮因2美元的韓國烤肉于2008年在洛杉磯流行開來，這是因為洛杉磯這座城市隨處可適應美食車。相比而言，芝加哥卻禁止快餐車停留在實體餐廳的200英尺范圍內，還要求他們配有GPS定位以確保他們遵守了上述條例，而這一切讓市中心商業區的人們生活艱難。

Businesses lobby for lots of things they should not have: handouts from the taxpayer,handicaps imposed on their rivals. But it is hard to find fault in their plea for simpler rules,swifter bureaucratic decisions, government websites that a normal person can navigate andofficials who actually answer the phone.

企業為了許多不屬于他們的東西四處游說：納稅人的救濟金，給對手造成的障礙。然而，我們很難去指責他們想要簡單條例、更迅速的官僚決策、普通人可以使用的政府網站以及可以接通電話的官員。

Clearing away old rules is hard. Their benefits tend to be concentrated (eg, when they protectincumbents); their costs dispersed (slightly higher prices affect all consumers, but only alittle). States and cities can, however, slow the pace at which new rules proliferate, for exampleby estimating their economic impact before enacting them. Last year Iowa's governor vetoed abill that would have required licences for drug-abuse counsellors, and Arizona made life easierfor firms operating in multiple cities with separate sales taxes by limiting them to one tax formand one audit.

廢除老規矩是很難的。老規矩的受益者們往往很集中(當要保護現任者的時候);所需成本分散(稍高的價錢會影響所有的消費者)。然而，州政府以及市政府卻可以放慢新規則的制定速度，例如，在制定之前可以先評估其經濟影響。去年愛荷華州的官員投票通過一項法案，其內容要求吸毒人員的顧問持有執照;亞利桑那州放寬對公司的要求，通過限制公司只有一個稅種和一種審計，允許其在多個城市支付單獨的銷售稅。

The difficulty is that many rules purport to protect the public: from shoddy services,dangerous products or even death. Even if the cost is high and the risk remote, no politicianwants to be accused of compromising public safety. Last year Mike Pence, Indiana's Republicangovernor, vetoed the licensing of diabetes educators and anaesthesiologist assistants, on thegrounds the new rules would raise barriers to business and require additional bureaucracy.But a year later, he signed into law a modified version of the measure, minus the extrabureaucracy but otherwise much the same.

許多條例制定出來是為了保護民眾免受贗品、危險的產品以及死亡的威脅，而這恰恰也是難點。即使成本高，危險遙不可及，沒有一個政客愿意因為危害公共安全而被起訴。去年，印第安納州共和黨州長麥克·彭斯投票糖尿病教育者以及麻醉學者助理的許可證，理由是新的法規會給商業活動造成困難，并會增加額外的官員。但是一年以后，他簽署了一份修改版的法案，減少多余的官僚機構，其他方面則一樣。

【重點解析】

1.comply with 遵守;遵從;依從

例句:They refused to comply with the UNresolution.

他們拒絕遵守聯合國的決議。

2.because of 因為;由于

例句:The man was known to the police because ofprevious convictions.

因為有犯罪前科，警察們都認識這個人。

3.such as 例如;諸如

例句:Issues such as these were not really his concern.

他其實并不關心諸如此類的問題。

4.according to 根據;按照;依照

例句:The route that the boatmen choose varies according to the water level.

船夫選擇的路線會隨水位的變化而有所不同。