Indiana has had more than a little success in attracting businesses to head immeditely east — from Illinois to the Hoosier state. A Rockport Register Star political reporter says the numbers show just how bad the situation is in his home state.

The Land of Lincoln is a tough place to do business to be sure.

For example, Office Depot has been capturing plenty of headlines. The company recently merged with OfficeMax, and its executives were pondering whether to use OfficeMax’s Naperville headquarters or Office Depot’s Boca Raton, Fla., site.

The Sunshine State won out. It’s not hard to figure out why.

Just consider:

• Illinois has a corporate tax rate of 9.5 percent (7 percent income, 2.5 percent personal property replacement tax) while Florida has a 5.5 percent corporate tax rate.
• Illinois has a personal tax rate of 5 percent while Florida has none.
• For every $100 worth of payroll, Illinois employers pay an average of $2.81 for workers’ compensation insurance, compared to $1.84 in Florida.
• Illinois’ minimum wage is $8.25 per hour, compared to $7.79 in Florida.

You see, it’s not just Florida that Illinois has trouble competing against. It’s just about every state that has a leg up on the Land of Lincoln.

Just consider:

• A study conducted by the state of Oregon found that Illinois has the fourth-highest workers’ compensation rates in the nation.
• Illinois also has the fourth-highest minimum wage in the nation.
• Illinois’ corporate tax rates rank, you guessed it, the fourth-highest in the nation.
• Given these numbers, it’s little wonder that Illinois has the 11th-lowest rate of entrepreneurship in the U.S., according to the Kauffman Entrepreneurial Index.

And small businesses are the major job generators in the economy.

According to the U.S. Small Business Administration, small firms employ just more than half of the private sector workforce and created nearly two-thirds of nation’s net new jobs over the past 15 years. Please keep in mind, every big company started out small.