* Center Square…

The American Legislative Exchange Council released its first Governors ranking, the 2020 Laffer-ALEC Report on Economic Freedom. The scorecard ranked America’s 50 governors based on policy performance and executive leadership before and after the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Economic policy expert and co-author of the report, Stephen Moore, said Pritzker was ranked 44th in the country.

“Not only has Pritzker done just an awful job in terms of bringing that state back, but now they are talking about a massive tax increase that’s on the ballot sponsored by the governor which would, in my opinion, be the last nail in the coffin for the great Land of Lincoln,” Moore said. […]

Co-author Donna Arduin, who has served as budget director for several governors, including Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, said some states were in a better position to deal with the pandemic.

“I always advise my governors that you have to be prepared for some unknown crisis or disruption because they always come, and some governors were prepared for it and some were not,” Arduin said.

Pritzker did not respond to questions about the ranking.

Moore said the state-imposed lockdowns cost jobs and did nothing to save lives.

“Government lockdowns and unclear timetables have proven to be harmful to the health and economy of states,” Moore said. “It’s no surprise, states where governors mandated strict lockdowns and restricted individual freedom are in far worse shape than states that remained safely open.”

The top three governors on the scorecard are Greg Abbott of Texas, Brian Kemp of Georgia, and Kristi Noem of South Dakota. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island was ranked the worst governor, followed by Mike Dunleavy of Alaska and Phil Murphy of New Jersey.

Lot to unpack there.

1) Stephen Moore is more of a pundit than an expert and co-wrote the book Trumponomics. He’s known for some nutty comments about women, admitted he didn’t understand what his duties would be on the Federal Reserve after being nominated to a slot (which was withdrawn because he was even too much for Senate Republicans), and has been known to get things wrong quite often.

2) Moore claiming that stay at home orders didn’t save lives is just crackpot goofiness.

3) Donna Arduin was once a business partner with Moore and Art Laffer. She is best known in Illinois for being Gov. Bruce Rauner’s disastrous “superstar” budget guru. If your memory needs refreshing, just click here. She was pushed out of her Alaska gig shortly after that post was published. It turns out, Arduin herself was often the “unknown crisis or disruption” that governors should prepare for.

4) The Alaska governor who saved his own hide from a fast-building recall attempt by booting Arduin is Mike Dunleavy, who was just coincidentally named one of the country’s worst governors by Arduin and Moore. Dunleavy, by the way, brought in Hans Zigmund to help clean up Arduin’s mess. Zigmund had experience with that task. He was Rauner’s last budget director who helped clean up what Arduin had helped mess up. Perhaps Hans should create a new consulting company and follow Arduin around the country.

* Jordan Abudayyeh…

I can assure you this administration is not interested in a ranking from the same ideologues who manufactured the state’s budget crisis under Bruce Rauner. Since taking office, the Governor has been focused on cleaning up the mess the previous administration left and rebuilding a hollowed out state government. Gov. Pritzker passed a balanced budget during his first six months in office that resulted in month to month surpluses, an accomplishment that eluded the previous administration and all of their budget “experts” for an entire term.

While that’s mostly true, there’s no hiding from the fact that the state budget is a freaking disaster right now. And if the graduated income tax goes down in flames, it’s all gonna get worse. Much, much worse.