Cato Club 200 Retreat and Report Cards

The lyrics “You want to go where everybody knows your name”, from the TV show Cheers gives you a pretty good idea of what it’s like to be part of the Cato Club 200 retreat.

“Lucky us!” is how Becky and I felt as we spent the weekend with friends, experts, and scholars that are pretty close to 100% in agreement on the right size of government—smaller.

One of my favorite talks at this year’s retreat, held at the Salamander Resort in Middleburg, VA, was by Nicole Kaeding previewing Cato’s 12th biannual Fiscal Policy Report Card on America’s Governors written by Chris Edwards and Kaeding.

What’s great about the Cato Club 200 retreat is that the scholars are available for discussion all weekend long. I always make it a point to talk with my friend Chris Edwards and catch up on his work at DownsizingGovernment.org. I also visited with Kaeding after her talk to get the inside scoop on the governors report—needless to say it’s no surprise California’s Jerry Brown is at the bottom of the list.

It’s worth noting that 9 out of the top 10 governors with “A” or “B” grades are Republicans which tells me they can do the right thing with proper guidance. As for the bottom of the list there were 8 “F”s and all were Democrats telling me the only way to reform this group is to vote the bums out.

This year we awarded “A” grades to four governors:

• Pat McCrory of North Carolina signed a bill replacing individual-income-tax rates of 6.0, 7.0, and 7.75 percent with a single rate of 5.75 percent. He also cut the corporate-tax rate from 6.9 to 5.0 percent and repealed the estate tax.

• Sam Brownback of Kansas approved a plan in 2012 replacing three individual-income-tax rates with two and cutting the top rate from 6.45 to 4.9 percent. The reform also increased the standard deduction and reduced taxes on small businesses. Brownback cut income-tax rates further in 2013.

• Paul LePage of Maine signed major income-tax cuts in 2011, and he is pushing for further tax reforms. State spending has been roughly flat in recent years, and LePage has trimmed spending on welfare, health care, and other programs.

• Mike Pence of Indiana has been frugal on spending and a champion tax cutter. He signed bills to cut individual-income-tax rates 5 percent (the current rate of 3.4 percent will fall to 3.23 percent in 2017) and repeal the inheritance tax. He also approved a corporate-income-tax rate cut and a major reduction in property taxes on businesses.

Bio
Latest Posts

E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

Preparing your investments and family for when disaster strikes.

E.J. Smith is the Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH, where he completed course-work in Practical and Defensive Handgun, Conceal Carry Pistol, Shotguns, Precision Scope Rifle and Kidnapping Prevention. E.J. plays a Yamaha Recording Custom drum set with Zilldjian cymbals. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zilldjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@youngresearch.com. Sign up here to receive all the best content from Richardcyoung.com each week.