Laffer-ALEC Report to Rank All 50 Governors

State executives to be graded on performance in spending, regulation and tax policy

At the 47th ALEC Annual Meeting, Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts, Dr. Arthur B. Laffer and other state policy experts sat down to discuss the next flagship ALEC publication: the Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom.

“There’s been talk of another stimulus package and that’s just one of the things I can’t support,” said Governor Ricketts on this ALEC panel from last week’s 2020 ALEC Annual Meeting. He urged his fellow governors to not accept a federal bailout. “You’ve got significant disparities between how the states are being run, and another stimulus package will just run up our debt and penalize states, like Nebraska, that are doing the right thing.”

The report, whose authors and researchers include Dr. Arthur B. Laffer, Steve Moore, and Donna Arduin, ranks America’s governors based on the five pillars of macroeconomics: spending, regulations, tax policy, monetary policy and trade policy.

Across the country, each state government is unique – just like the people and industry of each state are unique. Similarly, state Governors and state executive branches have priorities that differ from state to state. Some have better priorities than others, and some are more successful at implementing their policies than others.

The Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom makes sense of this reality. Policy priorities outlined by governors in public statements, like their annual state of the state addresses, are judged. Then, the success of a governor to make real these statements is tracked. Governors who stand out in the ALEC-Laffer report for promoting responsible spending, sound tax policy and a rollback of regulations include FL Governor Ron DeSantis, SC Governor Henry McMaster, ID Governor Brad Little, AZ Governor Doug Ducey, SD Governor Kristi Noem and ALEC Annual Meeting panelist NE Governor Pete Ricketts.

“Government doesn’t create resources, government redistributes resources,” said Dr. Arthur B. Laffer. “And this is not the time to bail out bad dealers.”

During the ALEC session, panelists discussed a new report from the Committee to Unleash Prosperity and FreedomWorks that grades governors on their COVID-19 response, they discussed what state leaders and executives can do to get Americans back to work after COVID-19, and the made clear the issue areas that were used to create the Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom.

ALEC recently released a letter to governors across the states urging them to say “no thanks” to a federal bailout, which was signed by over 200 state legislators. Find the letter here.

Watch the full panel discussion here.