Florida stands out to out-of-towners

To some local executives, especially the ones who have been around for a while, Florida might not always seem especially business-friendly.

But to hundreds of other top executives nationwide Florida is heaven, behind only Texas and North Carolina when it comes to the best place to do business. The rankings were part of an annual survey conducted by Chief Executive magazine. The survey of 550 nationwide CEOs looked at what makes a state business-friendly or unfriendly, from taxes and regulation to debt per capita and the amount of patent holders.

Florida moved up three spots in the 2011 survey from 2010, passing Tennessee, Virginia and Nevada. Florida was also No. 3 in the 2009 survey.

The Sunshine State earned four out of five stars in the three key categories: Taxation and regulation, workforce quality and living environment. On workforce quality, for example, the state boasts that 25.8% of its residents have a bachelor's degree, while 85.2% have earned at least a high school diploma.

The bottom five of the survey, what the magazine calls its “hall of shame,” is a list of states with high tax rates and levels of regulation. In descending order those states are Michigan, New Jersey, Illinois, New York and California.