During the four years that Mitt Romney served as governor of Massachusetts, the Cato Institute published two reports that graded the nation’s governors on spending. In the first, Cato gave Romney a “midterm” grade of a D. In the second, it gave him an overall grade of a C.
Cato’s reports, conducted biennially, rate the nation’s governors on a variety of “objective measures of fiscal performance.” “Governors who have cut taxes and spending the most receive the highest grades,” Cato writes. “Those who have increased spending and taxes the most receive the lowest grades.”
Romney’s overall fiscal policy grade from Cato, factoring in both spending and tax policy, was a C. His numerical score (55 out of 100) placed him in a 4-way tie for 12th place, behind six Republican governors and five Democratic governors, and tied with two other Republican governors and one other Democratic governor.
On spending alone, Romney’s score improved from a D at the 2-year point to a C overall. His overall numerical score on spending (50 out of 100) placed him in 14th place, behind seven Republican governors and six Democratic governors, including six governors (five Democrats and one Republican) from left-leaning states.
In issuing its final report on Romney’s term as governor, Cato wrote:
Cato concludes, “If you consider the massive costs to taxpayers that his universal health care plan will inflict once he’s left office, Romney’s tenure is clearly not a triumph of small-government activism.”
