Florida Ranked #1 For Freedom In USA

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Daytona Beach, FL - Florida is the freest state in the union, again.

That's the conclusion of the latest edition of the annual 'Freedom In The 50 States' report from the Cato [KAY-toe] Institute.

Co-author Dr. William Ruger says Florida's #1 ranking is based on about two dozen factors, including fiscal and regulatory policy, low taxes, no income tax and low state government spending.

Florida also gets high marks in the report for educational freedom, including school choice, and because it doesn't box in developers and builders with a lot of land use restrictions, per Ruger.

He noted that Florida could be even freer if the state would cut down on occupational licensing laws and allow more gun rights, including open carry.

Florida has usually been in the Top 10 every year in this report since 2000. California came in 48th and New York dead last.

Cato Institute is a Washington, DC-based libertarian think tank founded in 1974 as the Charles Koch [COKE] Foundation.

For more details on the report, click here.