Cato Grades 45 of 50 Governors: (Four — the governors of Kansas, New Jersey, Virginia, and Utah — are omitted because they haven't been in office long; Alaska's governor is omitted because Alaska's budget is so different from the other states.)
On taxing and spending, the libertarian think tank gives "A" grades to five governors, four of them Republicans, and "F" grades to five governors, four of themDemocrats.
Here's how my own governor earned her "F".
Chris Gregoire of Washington has supported many large tax increases over the years. In 2005, she raised taxes on cigarettes, gasoline, liquor, and vehicles, and she reestablished an estate tax after a previous version was struck down by the state supreme court. In the boom years before 2008, Gregoire blocked efforts to cut taxes. While campaigning for reelection in 2008, Gregoire argued in favor of spending cuts rather than tax increases to balance the budget. But once reelected, she approved a large tax-hike package including increases in business taxes, sales taxes, cigarette taxes, beer taxes, and candy taxes. Gregoire seems always to take the big-government side in referendum issues before voters. She has opposed ballot efforts to cap government budget growth and to require legislative supermajorities to raise taxes. This year, Gregoire supported putting a measure on the November ballot to create a state income tax, even though state voters have turned down an income tax numerous times in the past.
(Activists, led by the older Bill Gates, are trying again to impose an income tax here, on only the rich they say, though it could be extended by the legislature, two years after it was passed.)
This is a useful exercise, though I would like to see more on the state legislatures, which, after all, do control the purse strings. For example: Cato gives the Democratic governor of Wyoming, Dave Freudenthal, a "B" grade. But I suspect that the heavy Republican majorities in the state legislature (41-18 and 23-7) may explain much of the spending restraint in the state. Similarly, Cato gives the Republican governor of Hawaii, Linda Lingle, a "C". But she has been faced with a legislature dominated by Democrats (45-6 and 23-2), and might have done much better with even a few more Republicans to support her. In my own state, I have long suspected that Governor Gregoire's predecessor, Gary Locke, would have been almost as bad a spendthrift as she has been, — if he had had the same big Democratic majorities in the legislature.
Cross posted at Sound Politics.
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