Jared Polis In The Top 10 In Survey Of Country's Best Governors From Conservative Think Tank
(CBS4) - Gov. Jared Polis is the ninth-best sitting governor in the United States according to new rankings released by conservative think tank the American Legislative Exchange Council. The economic survey was released on Tuesday and takes the states' responses to the coronavirus pandemic into account.
"President Trump wisely respected the principle of federalism and empowered elected state leaders to make critical decisions and shape their own health and economic responses to the pandemic. Unsurprisingly, the 50 governors took very different approaches to policymaking. Some reduced taxes, regulations and enhanced their economic competitiveness, while others took a very different policy strategy. That's why it is important to use reports like this one to compare and contrast the widely different results," ALEC Chief Economist Jonathan Williams said in a prepared statement.
The title of the report is the "2020 Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom" and it was authored by Art Laffer, who was an economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan and also worked on President Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign. According to ColoradoPolitics.com, Polis once interned for Laffer.
Polis is the only Democratic governor in the top 10. In specific category breakdowns he got the following rankings:
Tax Policy - 4
Spending Policy - 3
Cares Policy - 4
Union Policy - 39
Welfare Policy - 30
Education Policy - 6
The reports states the following about his governorship:
"Upon taking office in 2019, Governor Jared Polis inherited a strong framework laid by pro-growth leaders. As a result, the state has experienced strong economic performance in recent years. TABOR, or the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, has kept tax revenues and spending from growing in an excessive fashion since Colorado voters enshrined it into the Colorado Constitution in 1992. Gov. Polis recently endorsed a measure to reduce the state's personal income tax, which would be a benefit to an already strong policy environment."
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott was named the country's No. 1 governor and Rhode Island's Gov. Gina Raimondo was ranked No. 50.
