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How free is your state?


billcoe

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And Washington mooved up to 40th! Woot!

 

"Analysis

 

Washington was among the states that improved the most in overall freedom and consequently moved up five spots in the rankings. Unfortunately for denizens of that state, it had—and still has—a long way to go. Washington is still among the 10 least-free states. Indeed, it only barely cracks the top half of states in personal freedom. Spending is a bit higher than average, but taxes are slightly lower—a recipe for gov- ernment debt, which Washington has in abundance. Government employment is also too high. Land-use planning is fairly centralized. Eminent-domain legislation has been enacted but reforms need to go further. Labor and health-insurance laws are poor. Washington has the highest minimum wage in the country. It also has adjusted community rating and has enacted a host of new health-insurance coverage mandates. The state liability system is a bit above average. For a liberal state, gun laws remain quite reasonable. Alcohol is tightly controlled, with taxes on spirits the highest in the country by far (effectively $22.33 per gallon!). However, beer and wine taxes are considerably lower than average. Cigarette taxes are high overall and the highest in the West; smoking bans are extensive. Marijuana laws are a bit better than average, with a relatively humane (but still too high, at five years) maximum prison term for single offenses. Making high-level possession and low-level cultivation misdemeanors and low-level possession a civil offense would help further. Motorist freedoms are constrained and now include a ban on handheld cell phones. However, Washington does not authorize sobriety checkpoints. Gambling is restricted. Educational regulation is absurdly tight, with private schools needing state approval and under certain conditions, teacher licensing, and homeschoolers needing to meet teacher qualifications, annual standardized testing, and extensive recordkeeping rules, along with other requirements. Washington’s asset-forfeiture laws are among the worst in the country and require reform. However, the state performs quite well on victimless-crime arrests and drug-law enforcement.

Policy Recommendations

 

Reduce spending consistent with the state’s relatively decent tax-burden levels, starting with reducing government employment and spending on natural resources (mostly at the state government level) and sewerage (at the local government level), which is particularly far above national norms.

Enact further-reaching eminent-domain reform.

Reduce centralized land-use planning by repealing or amending the Growth Management Act and Shoreline Management Act."

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"state’s relatively decent tax-burden levels"

 

Washington has among the most regressive tax scheme in the nation, which is likely why they think it's "decent".

 

Wingnuts are so much for "freedom", they want to require a supermajority to raise new revenue.

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Spending is a bit higher than average, but taxes are slightly lower—a recipe for government debt

 

Texas has among the lowest taxes and the lowest spending on public services in the nation, yet Texas has a huge budget shortfall (despite wingnuts cooking the books). Texas is of course in the top 1/3 in freedumb ranking. You can tell where this is going.

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FREEDUMB or death: The return of back-alley abortions

 

10 States Where Abortion Is Virtually Illegal for Some Women

 

5 of these states are in the top 1/4 of the freedumb ranking, 4 more in the top half, with only one in the bottom half (Louisiana at 35).

 

You should do a road tour where you visit all these states and tell them how "dumb" they are.

 

Love how progressives claim to care about the common man, but evince such blatant disregard for him in reality, condemning whole swaths of the country as "dumb" and obviously beneath them. If only you could have the State educate these people and put them in their place while ensuring they have a job and a "living" wage. Kind of like taking care of your pets, I suppose, eh j_bot?

 

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None of us are free anymore Bill. Freedom died with George Bush and Martin Luther King, the Kennedys, and Lynrd Skynyrd.......

Steve and I actually agree here - it's an illusion / delusion. Our diet alone means we have no freedom and our dependence on sanitary, transportation and communication technologies pretty much puts the nail in the coffin.

 

I somehow can't shake this image of an iPhone-toting, anti-guberment militia attempting a flashmob assembly with their weapons at a local McDonalds in order to plan an assault on U.S. government 'forces'. Sshhhh! It's a secret...

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