While we’ve reported New Hampshire’s status as most free in CATO’s latest Freedom in the 50 States, which of our fifty social, cultural, and political laboratories scored the worst? The least free. Would it surprise you to hear the bottom ten are all run by Democrats?
And they are who you’d expect.
- New York – Democratic Governor
- Hawaii – Democratic Governor
- California – Democratic Governor
- New Jersey – Democratic Governor
- Oregon – Democratic Governor
- Maryland – Republican Governor
- Delaware – Democratic Governor
- Vermont – Republican Governor
- New Mexico – Democratic Governor
- Rhode Island – Democratic Governor
Here are a few examples of why these states score so poorly in the Survey (survey rank included).
50. New York
New York has been the least free state in the country for a long time. In fact, the Empire State has been the worst state for Freedom in every year since our data set began in 2000. Economic Freedom is the most significant weakness, but the state has not kept up with the rest of the country on personal freedom either. It belies the “blue” state stereotype in that it is No. 50 on economic Freedom and personal Freedom.
49. Hawaii
Hawaii’s fiscal policy is decidedly tax and spend. State-level taxes rose from an already high estimated 8.3 percent of personal income in FY 2009 to 10.5 percent in FY 2020. Local government also taxes at a very high level given how little it has to do (state government runs schools).
48. California.
Regulatory policy is more of a problem for the state than fiscal policy. California is one of the worst states on land-use Freedom. Some cities have rent control, new housing supply is tightly restricted in the coastal areas despite high demand, and eminent domain reform has been nugatory. The state even mandates speech protections in privately owned shopping malls.
47. New Jersey
Renewable portfolio standards are among the highest in the country, raising electric rates. In 2013, the state adopted a minimum wage that has suffered big hikes recently. Labor-market Freedom was already bad because of strict workers’ compensation rules, mandated short-term disability insurance, mandated paid family leave, no right-to-work law, and a stricter-than-federal anti-discrimination law.
46. Oregon
Oregon used to have some advantages compared with its less free southern neighbor, California. However, it has become more and more like the Golden State over time. That has not been good for the Freedom of Oregonians. Oregon was ranked as high as 32nd back in 2007. Today, it is 46th. Oregon is among the worst states on economic Freedom but despite a relative slide remains a top-10 state on personal Freedom.
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43. Vermont (Because it is a model for NH Dems)
Vermont is one of the highest-tax states in the country. It also looks extremely fiscally centralized, with state government taking 9.8 percent of adjusted personal income and local government taking just 2.1 percent. However, this statistic is overstated, because Vermont counts the property tax as a state tax, even though towns have some discretion over the rate at which it is set locally. Vermonters would benefit from decentralization of tax and spending authority.
NH Democrats have been trying for years to centralize property tax authority disguised as relief and primarily to jack up school budgets to reward system public education failure (teachers union allies).
Vermont is proof of the lie regardless of intentions.
But Democrats will find all of these bad things at or near the top of their wish lists. Centralizing fiscal authority, policies that price lower-income folks out (be it jobs or energy), restricting and regulating land and its use, as well as other controls that remove price competition – the thing that naturally lowers costs and improves quality for the people Democrats claim to defend.
Neither government nor the Democrat party has any interest in quality or price competition. Only those pulling the heavy-handed levers of government and its (preferably) left-leaning leadership rise in these environments always at the expense of those they claim to champion.
HT | The Blaze
