Canada’s Frasier Institute comes out with an annual report on American economic freedom, including the United States, Canada and Mexico.
Economic freedom is roughly the freedom of individuals to participate in the economy free of regulations. Though conclusions can be more accurately done at the aggregate national level, the Frasier Institute breaks the numbers down by states and ranks them.
Texas is fourth, behind New Hampshire, Tennessee and Florida. What they all have in common is that none have a state income tax, and Texas Public Policy Institute economist Vance Ginn says it makes all the difference. “I think we would do well here in Texas to make sure we never have a personal income tax and that way we can have more economic growth, more economic freedom and more prosperity overall.”
We were number one. In 1981 of the Frasier Institute’s first report Texas topped the list among the states, but the numbers started dropping as the bottom fell out of the oil industry and we fell as low was ninth in 1993. In 2008, we had climbed back to second. We’ve pretty much stayed in the top five.
At the bottom of the rankings is California at 49, but the state with the least amount of economic freedom is New York.
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