New York state is dead last in the freedom index

By STEVEN MALANGA
NY POST
May 5, 2009

The study includes dozens of variables, from social and personal freedoms (such as parents' rights to educate their children) to regulatory freedom (such as the degree of occupational- licensing requirements) to fiscal liberty (as measured, for instance, by states' debt burdens, which represent a constraint on future generations).
That New York's economic freedom is poor won't astonish businesses operating here, which must deal with an octopus-like regulatory regime, a civil-justice system that favors plaintiffs over defendants, high taxes and crushing per-capita government debt. But New Yorkers, who like to consider themselves enlightened and socially permissive, might be surprised at where their state ranks on the study's personal-freedom index -- third from the bottom...

http://www.nypost.com/seven/05052009/postopinion/opedcolumnists/shackling_ny_167656.htm