Cookeville ranked as Tennessee’s eighth freest city in the new Beacon Center Freedom Index released Wednesday.
The Beacon Center measures and ranks the freedom of the 30 most populated cities. Communications Manager Kylie Walker said scores are determined by factors like the amount of regulations and cost of living. Walker said Cookeville scored well in cost of government and individual liberty.
“That was thanks to no permits required for large gatherings,” Walker said. “A big one was Cookeville has low property taxes, whereas other cities continue to raise theirs. We saw that in Nashville and Bartlett, which are both in the bottom five of our index.”
Walker said Cookeville’s limited restrictions on animal regulation helped the city crack the top ten.
This is the second time the Beacon Center has put together a Freedom Index for Tennessee. The Beacon Center is a public policy think tank that strives to hold the government accountable to the people’s tax dollars. It conducts research and polls to see the impacts of local policies.
The last index was released in 2020. That year, Cookeville was ranked the sixth freest Tennessee city. Walker said part of the decline for this year’s index was due to a lower private property score.
“It still had top scores in individual liberty, but then, even permit requirements hurt their free enterprise rating,” Walker said. “The reason why Cookeville still struggles with free enterprise is because it still has those fees for short term rentals, food trucks, yard sales, and even going out of business permits.”
Cookeville ranked 16th in free enterprise, 12th in private property, and eighth in both cost of government and individual liberty.
Walker said the methodology for this project has been in the works for awhile. She said cities were notified about a year ago that the rankings would be released. Walker said the Beacon Center’s approach mimics that of the National Freedom Index.
“We use a common interested stat tool called the z-score,” Walker said. “We use that to measure how far each city deviates from the average, so that gives us a clearer picture of is your city doing better or worse than most.”
Walker said cities with lower taxes, reduced spending, and more individual liberties tend to score better on the freedom index. She said she hopes the index helps lower ranked cities improve. In addition, Walker said she hopes to help people know how their local policies stack up against those of their neighbors.
This year La Vergne was named the freest city, followed by Farragot, Gallatin, Brentwood and Hendersonville in the top five. Germantown, Collierville, Knoxville, and Nashville scored in the bottom five, with Bartlett coming in 30th.
