When it comes to freedom, Illinois comes up short

The Mercatus Center, which conducts market-oriented research at George Mason University, released a study ranking the 50 states based on whether or not government polices promote fiscal and personal freedoms.

Mike Billy
Illinois News Network

Illinois lawmakers sure love to legislate. That is, after all, their job. But in Illinois when the General Assembly is in session you can almost be sure that the laws legislators pass will restrict your freedoms instead of expanding them.

The evidence?

The Mercatus Center, which conducts market-oriented research at George Mason University, released a study ranking the 50 states based on whether or not government polices promote fiscal and personal freedoms.

Illinois ranks 45th on the list.

And Illinois’ ranking has gotten worse each year the Mercatus Center has put out the study. In 2001, Illinois ranked 29th. In 2007 the state slipped to 41st. In 2009 the Prairie State crept down to 43rd before hitting 45th in 2011.

Each year, Illinois has gotten a little less free.

The researchers examined three areas of government policy and in two of those Illinois had a particularly abysmal rank.

The first category is what the study called “regulatory policy.” This category, where Illinois ranks 42nd, looked at policies relating to occupational licensing, property rights protection, labor market freedom and other related areas.

According to the study’s authors, one reason Illinois did so poorly in this category is because it has the third-highest minimum wage in the country. The minimum wage hurts young and unskilled workers by pricing them out of jobs.

The second category is personal freedom, where Illinois is dead last.

The personal freedom category looks at a wide range of areas including tobacco and alcohol regulations, gun control, education policy and civil liberties, which includes topics ranging from religious freedom to nanny state regulations like trans-fat bans.

The study cites strict gun control laws and “very high” arrest rates for victimless crimes as two main reasons for Illinois’ low personal freedom score. It also called the state’s asset forfeiture laws “among the worst in the nation.”

Asset forfeiture refers to the government’s ability to take your property when they suspect you of a crime. You don’t have to be convicted or even charged – just a suspect. As a study by the Institute for Justice pointed out, in Illinois police can seize your property if they have probable cause that you committed a crime. It is up to you to prove your innocence if you want to get that property back.

Illinois fared best in the “fiscal policy” category, which looks at tax burden, government employment and government debt. In that category Illinois is 29th, which is still pretty bad, but not as terrible as 50th and 42nd.

Overall, the facts speak for themselves – little by little, Illinois has continued stripping personal freedoms from its residents.