If you don't want to write the HTML you can do something like this

Controller:
Dictionary<string,string> states = new Dictionary<string,string>();
states.Add("NY", "New York");
states.Add("PA", "Pennsylvania");
....
ViewData["States"] = new SelectList(states, "Key", "Value", "NY");
return View("Index");

////

Page.aspx
<%= Html.DropDownList("States") %>