Freedumb

By Ben Olson
Reader Staff

If you toss a water balloon into a crowd of Idahoans, chances are you’ll hit someone wearing a shirt that has something about “freedom” written on it. Perhaps it’s an American flag and a Punisher skull and the words, “These colors don’t run,” or, “Freedom ain’t free,” in a rakish alpha male font. You know the shirts I’m talking about. 

It seems we take our “freedoms” quite seriously here in the Gem State; but, according to the libertarian think tank the Cato Institute, Idaho ranks nearly last among the states for access to personal freedoms.

In the seventh edition of Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom, the former criterion includes categories such as marriage freedom; freedom to access tobacco, alcohol, firearms, cannabis and gambling; travel freedom; education freedom; and more, while the latter includes fiscal and regulatory policies across a variety of categories — such as state and local taxation, land use and health insurance. 

Idaho ranks 14th out of 50 on “Overall” freedoms — next to Wisconsin (13) and Alaska (15), based on 230 state and local public policies examined by the Cato Institute. (New Hampshire took the top spot, while New York ranked 50th.)

We placed better in the “Economic” category, scoring seventh out of 50, but the real surprise is where Idaho falls in the “Personal” freedoms category: 49th out of 50, with Texas the only state ranking lower than Idaho.

“Idaho has always had strong regulatory policy and weak personal freedom,” the institute wrote. “As a result, its fiscal policy has driven the evolution of overall freedom over time.”

The Idaho highlights are with its regulatory policies, where it remains better than average on land-use and energy freedom, “despite some growth in zoning restrictions over the past 15 years or so and little legislative effort to rein in eminent domain abuse,” the institute wrote.

Aside from workers’ compensation requirements, Idaho does well on labor market freedom, also. Nurse practitioner independence is protected, physician assistants have full prescribing authority and our state’s civil liability system ranks among the best in the nation, according to the institute.

“It is one of the very best states for insurance freedom,” the institute wrote. “Idaho lacks any of the most expensive health insurance-mandated benefits we track where states still have some autonomy.”

It’s the 49th out of 50 in the “Personal” freedoms category that might serve as a gut punch for some.

“The drug enforcement rate is about average,” the institute wrote. “But non-drug victimless crime arrests are better than average, which suggests that the state’s biggest problem is sentencing. Idaho is also much less free than average regarding alcohol, gambling and cannabis.”

While gun rights and tobacco freedoms are higher than average, other criteria drag Idaho to the bottom of the rankings. Idaho controls retail distribution of alcohol and markups on spirits are especially high. It remains one of only four states where cannabis is fully illegal and not decriminalized. Online gambling is illegal, handheld cell phone usage while driving was labeled a primary offense in 2020 and Idaho “has no private school choice programs,” whereby public tax money can be used to fund private (i.e. religious) schools.

The institute leans heavily on the so-called “school choice” issue for its score, an issue which has divided many Idahoans, suggesting that the state can improve its “Personal” freedom score by enacting “education savings accounts” for private (i.e. religious) schools paid for with public tax funds. (Expect to hear a lot more about this in the 2025 Idaho Legislature.)

Wherever you fall on the political spectrum, it’s important to recognize that as much as one subsect of the population (i.e. the hard right-wing of the Republican Party) tries to take over Idaho politics in the name of freedom, the restrictive laws they pass continue to erode personal freedoms in the state, not increase them. In just the past couple of years, women’s reproductive rights have suffered a major setback with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, leading to maternity wards closing and more than half of Idaho obstetricians fleeing the state in fear of prosecution for providing life-saving medical care. 

I disagree with several of this libertarian think tank’s conclusions; including its position on “school choice.” How exactly is it “more free” to force taxpayers to fund a religious school that selects its staff and students based on ideology? Or presents interpretations of religious texts as scientific facts, such as claiming the Earth is only 6,000 years old? But I do see value in their analysis as a whole, dispelling the myth that Idaho is a bastion of total freedom like many of the politically motivated newcomers feel when they pull into town and buy their first bumper sticker with Idaho shaped like a gun firing a tree out of the Panhandle.

The tricky thing about freedom is that it isn’t an ideology or mindset that any one political party can claim as their own. Freedom for you includes freedom for me, too. 

The fact that Idaho places next to last in personal freedoms might inspire us to live up to the messages we see on those bumper stickers, T-shirts and flags.

But I’m not holding my breath.