Milken Institute 2005 Cost-of-Doing-Business Index

Look here to see that NM is in the top half of states ranked by business expenses (even though New Mexico has competitive wages and below average energy costs).
A few thoughts: There is no attempt to capture regulatory burden. There is no measure of gross receipts tax pyramiding. The weighting scheme for each of the 5 elements making up the index is not clear.
Thanks to Ralph Frasca at Division of Labour for the heads up.