Cato Institute gives Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey a D grade for fiscal policy

PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey’s fiscal policy has been downgraded by a prominent think tank.

The Republican received a D in the Cato Institute’s Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors for 2020, which was released last week.

The second-term Arizona governor’s fiscal performance has deteriorated over the years in the eyes of the Cato Institute, a Libertarian policy research organization that, according to its website, is “dedicated to the principles of individual liberty, limited government, free markets and peace.”

The Cato Institute has been grading governors’ fiscal policy every two years since 1992.

Ducey earned an A from the think tank on his first report card in 2016 and slipped to the C range in 2018.

In this year’s report card, the Cato Institute lauded Ducey for having “pro‐market instincts on many policy issues” but marked him down for spending.

“General fund spending increased 6.6 percent in 2019, and Ducey proposed increasing spending 8.7 percent for 2020, including spending on more than half a billion dollars of ‘new initiatives,’” the report card said. “Ultimately, the governor approved an 11.5 percent spending increase for 2020.”

The Cato Institute handed out A’s to four governors, all Republicans: New Hampshire’s Chris Sununu, Iowa’s Kim Reynolds, Nebraska’s Pete Ricketts and Wyoming’s Mark Gordon.

Twenty-six governors, including 10 Democrats, earned higher grades than Ducey.

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