NEW YORK

2022 RANK

50th
FISCAL REGULATORY PERSONAL OVERALL

1
Population, 2022
10
19,677,151
20
RANK

30
Net Migration Rate
2020–2022
40 –3.4%
50
2000 2005 2010 2015 2020
YEAR

State Tax Burden,

POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS % of Income

Fiscal: Spending is high in many categories; cut it

7.9%
across the board. Cut all taxes and pay down debt.
Local Tax Burden,
% of Income
Regulatory: Abolish the housing anchor that is rent
control. At least free the moving companies that help
7.6%
empty and fill the housing that does exist by getting rid
of certificate-of-need laws. Partisan Voting
Index, 2020

Personal: Slash cigarette taxes, which are so high as to D +9.6

be almost tantamount to prohibition.

Real Personal Income

Growth, Annualized,
2008–21

2.4%
154 F R E E D O M I N T H E 5 0 S TAT E S
ANALYSIS
New York has been the least free state
in the country for a long time. In fact, the
Empire State has been the worst state for
freedom in every year since our data set
began in 2000. Economic freedom is the
most significant weakness and is continu-
ing to get worse absolutely. The state has
made gains on personal freedom and is now
30th. New York’s terrible economic freedom
score is going to continue to drag the state
down—and harm its ability to realize its full
economic potential.
The only fiscal policy area where New
York is not below average is the ratio of gov-
ernment to private employment, where the
state has improved significantly since the
early 2000s. It now stands at 11.8 percent,
below the historical national average and
about average today. The government GDP
ratio has scarcely fallen during that same
period—and even rose higher in 2022, sug-
gesting that New York pairs relatively low
government employment with high salaries
and benefits for public employees. New
York’s local tax burden has fallen recently
but is more than twice that of the average
state: 7.6 percent of income in FY 2021—a
rise from the early 2000s, when it was less
than 7.0 percent. However, New Yorkers have
ample choice in local government: 4.1 com-
peting jurisdictions per 100 square miles.
The state tax burden—at a projected 7.9
percent of income in FY 2022—is dramati-
cally higher than the previous year, when it
was 6.2 percent, and more than even before
the COVID-19 pandemic, when it was 6.5
percent. This level is much higher than the
national average. Combined, state and local
taxes are crushing. Debt is down from years
past but is still the highest in the country at
26.1 percent of income, and liquid assets are
a bit less than half that, at 14.7 percent of
income.
New York is no longer the worst state on
regulatory policy as it has jumped all the way
up to 48th—although it is still close to New
Jersey and California as the worst regulatory
environment. Land-use freedom is very low,
primarily because of the economically dev-
astating rent control law in New York City.
Eminent domain remains unreformed. The
state has an onerous renewable portfolio
standard, though local zoning is fairly mod-
erate compared with surrounding states. The
state enacted a minimum wage in 2013–14,
and it has worsened since. New York also
has a short-term disability insurance man-
date and, as of 2016, paid family leave—and
unsurprisingly, no right-to-work law. Cable
and telecommunications are unreformed.
Occupational freedom is a relative bright
spot, coming in at number 16, with nurse
practitioners gaining some independence in
2013–14, which disappeared and then was
regained (and then some) in 2022. Insurance
freedom is a mixed bag. The state has stayed
out of the Interstate Insurance Product
Regulation Compact, but freedom for
property and casualty insurers to set rates
was dumped after it was briefly gained in
2013–14. State rate classification prohibitions
were newly created in 2018. The civil liability
system looks poor, but we may underrate
it slightly because of the state’s large legal
sector. Certificate-of-need laws exist for
both hospitals and moving companies.
New York is no longer the worst state
on personal freedom, in part because of its
relatively decent criminal justice policies
and number-nine ranking in this policy area.
Although drug arrests are above the recent
average, nondrug victimless crime arrests
are quite low. Incarceration rates are well
below average and declining. In fact, New
York’s incarceration rate fell precipitously
during the COVID-19 pandemic. The state
was one of only a few to impose the loss of
a driver’s license as a punishment for non-
driving drug crimes, but that ended in 2019.
Prison phone call rates have always been
low. Local law enforcement enthusiastically
participates in equitable sharing, and state
law imposes only modest limits in the first
place. Tobacco freedom is the second worst
in the country because of smoking bans and
stratospheric taxes (as of 2023, $6.85 a pack
S TAT E P R O F I L E S 155
 in New York City, topped only by Illinois’s
absurd $7.16-a-pack rate in Chicago).
Naturally, the state also has a vaping ban.
New York is perhaps the worst state for
homeschoolers, and it has no private school
choice programs and only a meager public
program. Sparklers were legalized in 2015,
and mixed martial arts competitions in 2016.
Gambling freedom is better than average;
casinos were introduced in 2005, and sports
and internet betting are now legal. Cannabis
freedom—as anyone who has been to New
York City lately can attest—is now above
156 F R E E D O M I N T H E 5 0 S TAT E S
average; the state enacted a limited medi-
cal marijuana law in 2014, and marijuana
was legalized in 2021. Alcohol freedom is a
bit above average, with modest taxes, but
grocery stores can’t sell wine. Gun rights are
hedged about with all kinds of restrictions,
but the recent Supreme Court decision in
Bruen is helping law-abiding gun owners.
Raw milk sales are legal and driver’s licenses
were made available to illegal immigrants in
2019, suggesting that even New York pater-
nalism has its limits.