Home of the free

Nevada's not doing poorly in every set of state rankings. Last week, George Mason University's Mercatus Center ranked Nevada sixth in its biennial state freedom survey.

The study's authors, William Ruger and Jason Sorens, conducted an exhaustive review of state policies through 2009, including business licensing and regulation; taxation; drug, gun and alcohol laws; government spending, debt and employment; tort climate; and state regulation of education and health care, among other areas.

"New York is by far the least-free state in the union," the study notes, with its outlandish taxation and debt, unsustainable welfare state, highly restrictive gun controls and nanny-state interference on everything from eating to smoking. Right behind New York are the freedom-crushing empires of New Jersey and California. New Hampshire, meanwhile, edged South Dakota and Indiana as the country's freest state, based largely on its fiscal strength and lack of sales and alcohol taxes.

Nevada jumped from No. 16 two years ago to No. 6, rating third in personal freedoms -- think gambling, prostitution, relaxed gun and alcohol laws and same-sex domestic partnerships -- and 16th in economic freedoms, with taxation and government spending "only slightly better than average."

The state could further climb the rankings by following the authors' policy recommendations: repealing expensive health insurance mandates, paring back "the strictest private-school regulations in the country" and getting rid of the job-killing, voter-approved hike in the minimum wage.

The forces of freedom were able to repel a number of intrusive proposals during the just-concluded 2011 Nevada Legislature, from mandatory tire-pressure checks to huge new taxes on business. Nevadans should take pride that they enjoy more personal and economic freedoms than most Americans -- liberties that give us more opportunities to earn a living and more choices in how to lead our lives -- and they should fight to keep them.