File this under things you already know, Save Jerseyans. Still, knowing that other people see it, too, might give you a little bit of solace.
On Tuesday, the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) released its 2021 Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom: Grading America’s 50 Governors. The goal was to grade all 50 U.S. governors.
“Every American deserves an efficient, effective and accountable government that puts the people in control,” said famed ecomonic Arthur Laffer who helped author the report. “The Governors Scorecard informs the citizenry of how well their governors are doing relative to all governors and ensures they have fact-based, nonpartisan information to help them either vote with their ballot or with their feet.”
Each governor is measured against 12 criteria ranging from education quality and freedom to economic competitiveness.
Guess who made the “bottom ten” list?
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Top Ten
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Bottom Ten
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41. Gretchen Whitmer, Mich.
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42. Ned Lamont, Conn.
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43. Tom Wolf, Pa.
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44. David Ige, Hawaii
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45. Phil Murphy, N.J.
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46. Andrew Cuomo, N.Y.
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47. J.B. Pritzker, Ill.
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48. Gavin Newsom, Calif.
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49. Daniel McKee, R.I.
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50. Michelle Lujan Grisham, N.M.
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Finishing directly ahead of a guy who had to resign due to sexual harrasment allegations (and lying about nursing home data). What an accomplishment!
The common thread among the nation’s worst governors?
“We believe that states are the 50 laboratories of democracy,” said ALEC CEO Lisa B. Nelson. “From our governors we learn what works and what doesn’t work. Top-ranked governors tend to have lower taxes, adopt policies encouraging domestic energy production, seek to empower individuals and families as opposed to empowering government bureaucracies. Their states also had lower unemployment and less welfare dependency.”
“In contrast, low-ranked governors tend to have restrictive energy production policies, higher taxes, unsustainable and underfunded state pensions, high unemployment and high welfare dependency,” added Nelson. “The low-ranked governors had top-down government control policies and attempted to grow government through federal funds.”
