Typically that comes down to tax incentives. "Pro-business" certainly can go too far or you have companies taking advantage of a system. The biggest way I see cities getting ripped off are with ProSport stadiums. Football teams can get cities to spend a ton of money to pay for these stadiums and the cities typically look at the benefits of this sales tax that they will reap as well as the other benefits to local businesses who will also benefit from having a large population of people in their area. As far as Vermont's concerned if I have a private business I'm going to pay significantly more in taxes to have my business there rather than in New Hampshire or New York which means that I take my business the income that that business makes and the jobs that it would create as well as the tax revenue that you would get from the income tax from those jobs. I could see Vermont taking a more progressive attitude towards small business owners and giving them better tax breaks especially if they're paying x amount over a livable wage or whatever kind of targets that the state would want to set.