New Jersey is America’s Least Free State: Understanding the Numbers Behind This Week’s Fox News Report

Trenton, NJ — Once considered a tax-friendly state that helped fuel its postwar economic rise, New Jersey now ranks 47th in overall freedom nationwide, with new analysis highlighted by Fox News showing decades of rising regulation and taxes reshaping its standing, according to the Cato Institute. I

The latest “Freedom in the 50 States” report underscores a sharp long-term shift: New Jersey, which ranked 10th in fiscal policy as recently as 2000, no...