The best place to run and operate a small busienss is ... South Dakota.

So says The Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council, which has issued its 12th edition of their annual "Small Business Survival Index"  (PDF link). The state that's most friendly to small business? South Dakota. The most hostile? New Jersey.

The composite index is the result of over a dozen subindexes, which include both the cost of government (rates of various taxes, per-capital spending) and items over which government has varying degrees of influence, such as mandated benefits on health insurance, the cost of electricity, and the cost-effectiveness of highways.