The supposedly “liberal” city of New York has been once again labeled “the least free state” in the U.S., according to the left-leaning think tank The Cato Institute.
The Cato Institute’s report claims that the Big Apple ranked last, or 50th, for policies impacting economic, social, and personal freedoms in 2022. It cited debt and state and local taxation, government consumption, land use, and labor policy.
“New York is the least free state again, as it has been in every version of the index and every year covered by this index since 2000,” the report read. “ Because states’ freedom scores represent their situation at the beginning of 2023, they include changes made by legislatures that in most states were elected in November 2020.”
By comparison, the red state of Florida ranked 2nd after New Hampshire as the most free state in America.
“New York’s terrible economic freedom score is going to continue to drag the state down—and harm its ability to realize its full economic potential,” authors William Ruger and Jason Sorens wrote. “Combined, state and local taxes are crushing. Debt is down from years past but is still the highest in the country at 26.1 percent of income.”
As mentioned, New York has always ranked last in every Cato study since it started reviewing data in 2000. The city, however, gets higher marks from live-and-let-live Cato for its lower incarceration rates and for legalizing marijuana.
“It is little wonder that New Yorkers are fleeing the state in droves. New Yorkers have been voting with their feet for years, leaving a state with such a glorious past and a great magnet supercity in part because of its stifling policies that restrict freedom and opportunity. New York outpaced all other states by far in terms of net out-migration to other states,” co-author Ruger told The New York Post.
“One of the worst problems for New York state as a whole is how New York City and Albany drive policy for the rest of the state,” he continued. “This allows left-wing ideologies and powerful concentrated interests to combine to run the state for their benefit while regular New Yorkers suffer. We especially see this in the regulatory area with policies like rent-control, eminent domain, renewable portfolio standards, minimum wage laws, and certificate of need laws.”
