Polls Say Wow, Pollsters Stay Put

I've been meaning to get to this for a while...

Every now and then we hear some optimistic news story about how South Dakota is so great for business. Most recently, Pollina Corporate released its "Top 10 Pro-Business States" list for 2007, on which South Dakota ranked 7th. (Pollina ranked us 3rd in 2006, 3rd in 2005, 6th in 2004.) Polls like this usually cite South Dakota's pro-business tax structure -- i.e., no corporate or personal income tax -- and low wages as factors in our relatively high rankings.

So a question: If pollsters like Pollina are such experts on business, and if their research shows South Dakota to be such a business haven, why aren't those pollsters moving here? Pollina is based in Chicago, Illinois, which state ranks 40th on Pollina's own rankings, but I haven't heard any talk of Pollina moving its headquarters or even opening a branch research office in South Dakota. Could it be that underpaying and overtaxing our workers isn't really the magic formula for economic growth?