{"id":73610,"date":"2016-08-17T03:12:14","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T09:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-is-rated-one-of-freest-states\/"},"modified":"2016-08-17T09:12:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T09:12:14","slug":"colorado-is-rated-one-of-freest-states","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/colorado-is-rated-one-of-freest-states\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado is rated one of \u2018freest\u2019 states"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Credit:
Credit: Getty Images\/iStockphoto<br><br>Colorado State Capitol Building<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

DENVER \u2013 Colorado remains one of the nation\u2019s \u201cfreest states,\u201d according to the libertarian Cato Institute.<\/p>\n

The Washington, D.C.-based think tank released its \u201cFreedom in the 50 States\u201d rankings on Monday, placing Colorado 11th in the nation.<\/p>\n

The state moved up two spots from its 2012 ranking of 13th. In 2010, the state ranked 18th; in 2008 it ranked 12th; and in 2006 it ranked ninth.<\/p>\n

The study examined state and local government intervention, including taxation, debt, eminent domain laws, occupational licensing and drug policy, to name a few of the more than 230 variables that were studied.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile the federal government has become more intrusive and inefficient over the last two decades, individual states are providing Americans with a little-recognized renaissance of policy innovation that is making their citizens freer,\u201d the report\u2019s authors said in a statement. \u201cIf we want to save our freedom and restore good government, it is to the states that we must look and not to the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n

The study was authored by William Ruger and Jason Sorens, researchers with Cato.<\/p>\n

Colorado\u2019s overall tax burden is a little lower than the national average, but state-level taxes have crept upward since fiscal year 2009. Local tax revenues peaked in fiscal year 2009 and fell back slightly to fiscal year 2012.<\/p>\n

Thanks to a 1992 law, the Taxpayer\u2019s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, taxes cannot be raised in Colorado without a vote of the people. The law also curbs government spending and requires taxpayer refunds when there is a revenue surplus.<\/p>\n

By individual category, Colorado scores 22nd in fiscal policy, 25th in regulatory policy and second in personal freedom, with much attention placed on the legalization of marijuana and gun rights.<\/p>\n

Despite the positive ranking, researchers said Colorado should consider trimming spending on local parks. The state spends almost twice the national average on local parks, according to researchers.<\/p>\n

Public parks, however, are considered by many Coloradans to be critical to a quality of life in Colorado, and public polling shows that many taxpayers would like investments in those areas, according to local environmental groups.<\/p>\n

The Cato Institute also recommended cutting spending on unemployment and business subsidies, while also reducing taxes.<\/p>\n

The study comes as Colorado voters will be asked to consider a $25 billion ballot initiative to create a single-payer health care system.<\/p>\n

Voters will also be asked to raise the state minimum wage. Another proposed ballot initiative for the fall would ask voters to raise taxes on cigarettes.<\/p>\n

pmarcus@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Libertarian think tank releases rankings<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73611,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,1160,1526],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73610","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-taxation","tag-taxation-and-budget"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73610","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73610"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73610\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73611"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73610"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73610"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73610"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73610"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}