This is the Kator Daily Podcast for Tuesday, October 18, 2022.

I'm Caleb Brown.

Chief executives of states get a lot of blame when things go bad, and some of the

credit when things are good. So evaluating the

performance of governors can be tricky. The Cato Institute's fiscal policy

report card on America's governors focuses on tax and spending policies

advanced or opposed by governors.

Chris Edwards is its author. We spoke yesterday on the latest report.

Well every two years the Cato Institute scores the nation's governors on their taxing and spending policies.

We grade them A to F. The best governors have cut taxes and spending the most and the worst

governors from our point of view have increased taxes and

spending the most. This year we're awarding five grades of A to Kim Reynolds of

Iowa, Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, Brad Little of Idaho, and

Doug Ducey of Arizona.

All right, so what sets them apart?

Well, Kim Reynolds of Iowa has been a fantastic governor.

She's been in office since 2017.

She's kept a tight rain on spending.

Spending's risen just 2% a year, which is less than the rate of inflation over the

last five years, and she's enacted probably the biggest tax reform we've seen in any state

in many years.

She chopped the top individual income tax rate from 9% down to just a 3.9% flat tax.

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