CATO Releases Fiscal Report Card: How Did Your Governor Score?

The CATO Institute has released its 2010 Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors, offering praise for some and criticism for many.

At the front of the pack are three Republicans and one Democrat: Gov. Mark Sanford (R-S.C.), Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-Minn.) and Gov. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.). Each of the four earned an “A” rating from CATO, besting their fellow governors by as much as 55 points according to CATO’s scoring mechanism.

Sanford, once considered a top GOP 2012 presidential prospect, led the A-grade recipients. CATO notes that Sanford has proposed implementing a flat tax in South Carolina, phasing out the state’s corporate tax, and adopting a firm spending cap. The report card write-up also called Sanford’s budgets “very frugal.”

Jindal, who many Republican insiders expect to consider a run for the presidency in 2016 has “a solid record on both his tax and his spending policies” according to CATO.

Meanwhile, Pawlenty, the subject of much media speculation regarding a possible presidential bid of his own, earned praise from CATO for his record on spending, and holding down general fund expenditures in particular.

The report also notes his hardened opposition to efforts to increase taxes in Minnesota, with the Wall Street Journal noting in an editorial today covering the CATO results that he “vetoed four separate income and other tax hikes that Democrats in the legislature sent him during the financial panic and recession.” Pawlenty emerged last year as one of the most vocal opponents of Democratic health care reform proposals, as well as Obama administration spending initiatives.

At the opposite end of the scale sit those earning an “F”: Gov. Christine Gregoire (D-Wash.), Gov. Jim Doyle (D-Wis.), Gov. Bill Ritter (D-Colo.), Gov. Pat Quinn (D-Ill.), Gov. Jodi Rell (R-Conn.), Gov. David Paterson (D-N.Y.) and Gov. Ted Kulongoski (D-Ore.).

Kulongoski ranked bottom of all governors with a meager score of 19, bested just slightly by Paterson at 25.

Of Kulongoski, CATO wrote that he “has been relentless in his advocacy of tax and spending increases,” having pushed for tax increases in the midst of last year’s recession and relentlessly pursued hikes in Oregon’s cigarette tax.

Paterson, meanwhile, has been a prime foe for anti-tax advocates as a result of having aggressively pursued a number of tax hikes while in office, and was cited by CATO for several prominent examples: A 2008 $1.7 billion tax increase, which encompassed a $1.25 per pack cigarette tax increase, a $1.5 billion “mobility tax” targeted at New York City residents, and this year’s cigarette tax increase that raised the price of a pack of premium smokes in Manhattan to around $13 per pack.