The Idaho Statesman, November 18, 2004

Idaho ranked fourth in a new survey measuring "economic freedom," which the authors defined as the absence of "regulatory and fiscal obstacles imposed on residents."

Idaho was at the top of the last similar list, published in 1999.

Kansas and Colorado ranked first and second, while Rhode Island, Connecticut, California, and New York brought up the rear.

The report, "U.S. Economic Freedom Index: 2004 Report," was released Wednesday by the Pacific Research Institute, a non-profit, California-based organization that advocates freedom, opportunity and individual responsibility by advancing free-market policy solutions.

The report says there is a correlation between a state's economic freedom and the wages of its citizens. It states that a 10-percent improvement in a state's economic freedom score yields, on average, about a half-percent increase in annual income per capita.

If all states were as free as top-ranked Kansas, the annual income of an average working American would rise 4.42 percent, or $1,161, putting an additional $87,541 into his or her pocket over a 40-year working life.

This would be a sizable addition to individuals' private retirement accounts, according to the report's authors, Ying Huang and Robert E. McCormick of Clemson University and Lawrence J. McQuillan of the Pacific Research Institute.

The authors said the best places to start businesses and find jobs are in states with the fewest regulatory and fiscal roadblocks.

They said the report confirms that the most economically free states are experiencing population growth, as Americans are moving to states that have the most business- and job-friendly climates.

Idaho is no exception.

From 1990 to 2000, the state's population grew by over 28 percent.