That 'was' SPT - and generates an execution plan with the same attributes that Walter stated would be yielded by some of the queries I posted.OK, well if that's definitely the query you need to perform and if you can express all the "empty" parameters as % in your SP version, you might be able to match the efficiency.
Just for interest: convert the non-state field LIKEs to = (or strike the % prefix) and repeat the exercise. ;-)
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1