Flurry of Legal Changes Threaten Freedom in Florida

Higher taxes, eroding civil liberties

If there was ever anything that needed a New Year's resolution in 2013, it's the stake of freedom in the Sunshine State.

Things aren't looking too good for Florida with officials bringing in more burdensome taxation, tougher penalties for free speech and creeping infringement on civil liberties..

According to the 2012 Economic Freedom of North America Index, published by the Fraiser Institute, a nonprofit free-market think tank in Vancouver, B.C., Florida ranks 39 out of 60 states and Canadian provinces for economic freedom, considered "less free" than half the other jurisdictions on the North American continent.