Cato Institute Ranks Lujan Grisham “D” for fiscal policy

Every two years the Cato Institute ranks all 50 governors in America in its Fiscal Report Card. Cato identifies as “libertarian,” but they focus on spending and taxes in this report. Former New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (a Republican) received the top score in the report in 2018. Alas, Michelle Lujan Grisham is no Susana Martinez.

Instead, while the report acknowledges MLG’s willingness to reduce taxes somewhat (they don’t acknowledge the State’s gusher of oil and gas revenues as the cause of this fiscal opportunity) they also note that: “Spending has soared under Lujan Grisham, which pushed down her score on this report. The general fund budget increased from $7.5 billion in 2019 to $12.4 billion in 2024, which is a 10 percent average annual increase.” Her spending growth was the highest among US governors (Table A1).

Regardless of her dramatic spending growth New Mexico remains flush with cash and thus has stuffed billions of dollars into its permanent funds (rather than reducing taxes).  This would be reasonable if New Mexico’s economy were diversified and strong, but that is simply not the case.

Could Lujan Grisham be worse?  Perhaps, but no other state in America has as many needs or as much money as does New Mexico. Sadly, MLG has failed miserably to “move the needle” on education, crime, or economic diversification.

Notably, Katie Hobbs of AZ received a D, Utah’s Spencer Cox a “C,” Colorado’s Jared Polis a “B,” and Greg Abbott of TX a “C.”

Republican Kim Reynolds of Iowa received the top overall score while Democrat (and VP candidate) Tim Walz of Minnesota was the worst performing Gov. in the nation.