Think Tank Grades New York Dead Last in Freedom

The study, released by George Mason University in Virginia, blames taxes, fees and regulations aimed at ridding the Big Apple of vice and health hazards such as smoking, salt excess and sugary sodas.

“I think there is a grain of truth to it,” John Murtagh, an attorney living in White Plains, said. “We’re not living in a police state. We happen to live in a very safe state. But the economics of New York clearly don’t work and then you see things like Mike Bloomberg and his Big Gulp sodas and we’re going to tell you what kind of cups you can use and what kind of bags you can use, that kind of day-to-day almost silly trivial “nanny”-type regulation; you can laugh about it but it starts to add up after a while.”

Businesses in the state have to deal with burdensome, often needless, bureaucracy. Such as the requirement to renew a state sales tax license after 27 years in business. But the taxes on cigarettes earned mixed reviews in the CBS interviews.

“For every $100 we have to pay $75 in taxes. Less free,” cigar shop owner Dominick Tortortello said.

Sean Patrone, who was purchasing tobacco, disagreed.

“I don’t like to say we’re less free,” he said.

Steve Keltz of Larchmont said that unlike totalitarian states, there is always an option to leave New York.

“Taxes are a way the government you choose to be governed by operates that government,” Keltz said. “And if you like a lot of services then you have to pay and if you don’t you can live somewhere where there are fewer services.”

New Yorkers, it seems, have exercised that freedom over the past decade. Census figures indicate the state’s population has decreased by 9 percent.

This article appeared in print on page 4 of the April 5th, 2013 edition of Hamodia.