By Anthony Hennen | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – A new report on America’s governors and their commitment to economic freedom scored Gov. Tom Wolf near the bottom of the pack.
The Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom, published by the American Legislative Exchange Council, grades every governor “on their current economic performance and their fiscal and executive policies over their term in office.” The report focuses on economic performance, executive policies, and fiscal policy, considering measures such as education freedom, interstate migration, unemployment rate, and debt.
Wolf, a second-term Democrat, was ranked in the “one-star governors” section at 43rd. With neighboring states, Wolf only beat out Phil Murphy of New Jersey and Andrew Cuomo of New York (45th and 46th, respectively), but placed behind John Carney of Delaware (38th), Larry Hogan of Maryland (35th), Jim Justice of West Virginia (33rd), and Mike DeWine of Ohio (32nd).
Cuomo is no longer governor, having resigned last summer; Kathy Hochul succeeded him.
While state governors don’t control all state policy, and can do more or less depending on whether their political party controls the legislature as well, the report tries to adjust accordingly. The Senate and House in Pennsylvania are led by Republicans.
“In most cases, state metrics are indexed to national averages to account for trends in U.S. performance, policies are recorded as those proposed by the governors themselves, and changes in performance and policy are only measured over the governors’ individual terms,” the report notes.
The top five governors in the report were Kristi Noem of South Dakota, Spencer Cox of Utah, Ron DeSantis of Florida, Jared Polis of Colorado, and Brad Little of Idaho. Four are Republicans, while Polis is the highest-ranking Democrat in the report.
Wolf’s strongest ranking was for executive policy, where the report placed him at 40th. Economic performance came in at 42nd, and fiscal policy came in at 43rd. Since Wolf’s inauguration in 2015, Pennsylvania’s spending as a percentage of gross state product has steadily increased, from about 10% to about 12%; previously, it had been declining.
Wolf has been optimistic about the state’s economy in recent years. In his 2022 budget address, he noted the state government has changed its budget deficit into a surplus; “at long last, our fiscal house is in order,” he said. “These are days of opportunity for our Commonwealth.”