Gov. DeSantis ranks 6th in first Laffer-ALEC Governor scorecard

Gov. Ron DeSantis. Image via Colin Hackley.

An inaugural scorecard by a conservative think tank gives Gov. Ron DeSantis five stars and ranks him the sixth-best Governor in the United States in findings released Tuesday.

The American Legislative Exchange Council ranks DeSantis as number ten among the country’s 50 sitting governors on results and names him the runner up on policy performance to South Dakota Republican Gov. Kristi Noem. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott leads both the overall and results rankings.

Governors’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, both on the health crisis and on CARES Act spending, play a significant role in the group’s rankings.

Art Laffer, who was an economic advisor to President Ronald Reagan and to President Donald Trump‘s 2016 presidential campaign, developed ALEC’s first “Report on Economic Freedom.” The organization of state lawmakers is based in Arlington, Virginia.

“State executives implement policy and respond to crisis in dramatically different ways,” Laffer said. “At such a critical decision point, voters need fact-based, nonpartisan data to judge their leaders and hold them accountable. The objective data voters need is all about economics, and it’s all found in this ranking.”

DeSantis’ early decision to keep COVID-19 patients out of nursing homes earned a nod in the report. But the Governor ranked 20th, his worst policy score, on his CARES Act handling. That metric is a combination of pandemic results and federal funds management, weighted by cases and deaths per million and the unemployment rate.

The Governor never issued a mask mandate and only issued a one month safer-at-home lockdown. Late last month, the Governor lifted all state-level restrictions on businesses and provided right-to-work guarantees to businesses and individuals.

“The Federally supported, state managed and locally executed response to COVID-19 provides a clear look at different styles and approaches to executive leadership,” White House advisor Stephen Moore said. “Government lockdowns and unclear timetables have proven to be harmful to the health and economy of states. It’s no surprise states where governors mandated strict lockdowns and restricted individual freedom are in far worse shape than states that remained safely open.”

The only Democratic Governor to rank in the top 10 is Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

DeSantis ranked third on education and ninth on union and welfare policy. He also ranks fourth on tax policy, buoyed by the state’s nonexistent income and inheritance taxes. Tax cuts also benefitted the Governor’s score.

The report also named the Governor’s historic $1 billion budget veto and low state spending compared to state wealth as boons for the state as the country battles economic uncertainty.

The report considers 20 criteria across tax policy and other key performance indicators when ranking governors.

“No state budget is managed like the other, but that’s because of the diversity in our states’ needs,” said lead researcher and former budget director for Florida, Alaska, California, Illinois, Michigan and New York Donna Arduin. “That is why objective and nonpartisan data is critical to compare state leaders’ performances, built and backed up by empirical criteria. Any person should be able to see how their Governor has led across the board without bias or agenda, and this scorecard’s methodology was designed to do just that.”