Well, Louisiana has had Republican governors for 10 of the past 14 years, California for 22 out of the past 26 years, and New York for 10 of the past 13 years, while New York City has had a Republican mayor for 15 of the past 17 years (Bloomberg has been an independent since 2007 or it would be 17 straight years). The GOP hasn’t exactly been an exemplary steward of the peoples’ money.
While I have to agree that the GOP has been woefully neglect in performing the most basic of it’s duties; the Govenor does not control funding. The Govenor finalizes and lead the state; but funding, taxes and programs fall under the Legislative branch.
The states I listed, have historically been Democratic in nature, voting more for Democratic principles than Republican principles. Detroit, LA, San Francisco, New Orleans and other such cities are now in financial ruin; yet these have the most generous Welfare programs, high taxes, high crimes, high populations of illegal aliens, crime and corruption.
However, states that have voted along Republican (ie. Conservative) ideals are doing much better. I offer Texas, Utah, North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and others as evidence. Of all of these, I believe Texas is the best (of course, being a displaced Texan, I may be biased a wee bit).