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Posted on 10/24/2006 3:19:38 PM PDT by george76
The Cato Institute in Washington, D.C. gave Gov. Bill Owens a D grade for his fiscal performance during his last year in office in a report released this week.
The Libertarian-leaning think tank releases a report card every two years for all 50 governors based on 23 criteria gathered from various sources, such as the U.S. census and budget data provided by state governments.
According to the report, Owens “engineered one of the biggest falls from grace in this report card’s 16-year history.”
The institute blasted Owens for his support of Referendum C, which was passed by voters last November and allows the state to retain surplus tax revenues for the next four years.
Instead of asking voters to fix Amendment 23, which requires increased spending on K-12 education every year, and defending the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights budget cap, the report said Owens “chose to team up with the Democrats to lift the cap and endorse a $3 billion tax increase.”
Owens’ final year in office lowered his overall Cato-given grade for fiscal performance to a C.
The report said Owens was “once on every conservative’s short list of possible candidates for higher office,” but will now be remembered as a “turncoat” by conservatives.
Steven Slivinski, Cato’s Director of Budget Studies, said the institute’s criticism of Owens was harsh but not needlessly harsh.
“I used language that I thought was appropriate to depict the fall in the grade,” said Slivinski, who has compiled the report for Cato since 1999.
Owens received an A from Cato in 2002 and 2004. The high marks are mentioned in the biography on Owens’ Web site.
Owens’ office could not be reached for comment.
The institute gave only one A, to Gov. Matt Blunt, R-Mo.
The next two highest-scoring Republicans were Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina, who got B grades.
The highest-scoring Democratic governors were John Lynch of New Hampshire and Phil Bredesen of Tennessee, who also got Bs.
Could have been somebody...President ?
.
Gov. Bill Owens drops to a D grade
He was/is a wuss. I'm surprised he got a D. He deserved an F, or F-.
Way too high, considering he pushed through the largest tax increase in state history.
He's the reason we are most likely going to have a RAT for Governor after the election. Why elect another Republican after seeing a limp noodle Republican?
He never was Presidential material.
Owens was a bad party leader, too.
We lost two federal seats to the Salazar brothers.
plus the state houses, plus...
GRRRR
Rick Perry of Texas got B grades.
Mark Sanford of South Carolina got B grades.
I wonder how the Public Employee Retirement Association is doing today? It was $12 billion in the red. I have a feeling that if this was included the grade would drop.
The institute gave only one A, to Gov. Matt Blunt, R-Mo...
How is Perry doing on the election ?
Just fine...he'll win easily...geezzz...we've got 4 running for governor...those other 3 are toast cause of each other.
Colorado is becoming the "Massachusetts of the west".
South Carolina Ping
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Thanks for the ping.
Thank you.
Your governor beats our governor.
We thought that Owens was good the first few years, then he went wobbly.
Hillary must have gotten Owen's FBI files, too.
Proof that Do-Goodery will lead to our country's downfall.
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Nope. Has no control over his personal life. Big-time skeletons that he put there made it impossible for him to be President, even before his ill-considered gutting of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.
Not only that, he has presided over the destruction of the Republican party in Colorado. We went from controlling both houses of the legislature and the governorship to, in all probability, none of them, after this election. Much of the blame for that lies on Owens shoulders.
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