Four out of Five Governors Implementing Austerity Measures Are Republican

DATA DRIVEN VIEW POINT:  Paul Krugman and many other economists have convincingly argued that government austerity is exactly the wrong prescription to lift us out of this recession.  Government stimulus spending is what we need to get the economy moving.  Krugman points to Europe where strict austerity measures are crushing the economies of Ireland, Spain and Greece.  The arguments for stimulus spending right now make perfect sense, but corporate biased politicians and some in the mainstream media aren't listening. 


The Department of Labor Statistics just posted the latest US employment numbers which were lower than expected, even though they are still in positive territory. Private sector employment remains sluggish, but has finally reached pre-recession levels.  Recovery of state government jobs lost in the recession has not reached that milestone.  As of March of this year there are still 42,400 fewer state government jobs than in February of 2008.  Recovery in public employment, employment controlled by elected officials, is lower than expected as many states are still retrenching and implementing austerity measures.  This strategy is hindering our recovery.  


Below is a table showing the total state government employment numbers from the Department of Labor Statistics Website.  These statistics do not include local or county government employment which is also below pre-recession levels.  What the data shows is that from February to March of this year total state employment rose by 14,100 jobs.  However, fifteen states posted declines in state government employment.  Three of these states have have Democratic governors and 12 of them have Republican governors.  Together these "austerity" states lost 9,200 state government jobs between February and March of this year.  States with Republican governors lost 5,900 state jobs while states with Democratic governors lost 3,300 state jobs.  In February 4 our of 5 states still implementing austerity measures had Republican Governors.

State Government Employment and State Party Affiliations

Employment numbers X 1000 from Dept. of Labor Statistics, May 4, 2012

State             Blue = Obama Win State	Obama Win %	Party of Current Gov	Current Governor	Feb '08	Feb '12	Mar '12	Change Since 2008	Change Feb '12 -Mar '12
Hawaii	72	D	Neil Abercrombie (D)                (R in 2010)	75.5	73.4	74.3	-2.8%	1.2%
Vermont	67	D	Peter Shumlin (D)                (R in 2010)	19	18.5	18.5	-2.6%	0.0%
New York	63	D	Andrew Cuomo (D)	262.3	264.3	264.8	0.8%	0.2%
Delaware	62	D	Jack Markell (D)	31.7	32.3	35.5	1.9%	9.0%
Illinois	62	D	Pat Quinn (D)	158	153.5	151.9	-2.8%	-1.1%
Maryland	62	D	Martin O'Malley (D)	110.2	116.3	117.6	5.5%	1.1%
Massachusetts	62	D	Deval Patrick (D)	120.3	128.2	128.5	6.6%	0.2%
California	61	D	Jerry Brown (D)                (R in 2010)	492.8	486.9	490.9	-1.2%	0.8%
Connecticut	61	D	Dan Malloy (D)                (R in 2010)	72.1	69.1	68.4	-4.2%	-1.0%
Washington	58	D	Christine Gregoire (D)	156.6	153	152	-2.3%	-0.7%
Oregon	57	D	John Kitzhaber  (D)	76.8	81.9	82.2	6.6%	0.4%
Colorado	54	D	John Hickenlooper (D)	89.5	99.4	100.6	11.1%	1.2%
Minnesota	54	D	Mark Dayton (D)  (R in 2010)	101.4	102.3	102.4	0.9%	0.1%
New Hampshire	54	D	John Lynch (D)	25.8	25.9	26.1	0.4%	0.8%
North Carolina	50	D	Beverly Perdue (D)	197.6	200.4	201.7	1.4%	0.6%
Missouri	48	D	Jay Nixon (D)	109	102.4	102.6	-6.1%	0.2%
Montana	47	D	Brian Schweitzer (D)	25.5	24.4	24.7	-4.3%	1.2%
West Virginia	43	D	Earl Ray Tomblin (D)	46.8	50.5	51.7	7.9%	2.3%
Kentucky	41	D	Steve Beshear (D)	101.5	100.4	100.6	-1.1%	0.2%
Arkansas	39	D	Mike Beebe (D)	74.4	78	78.7	4.8%	0.9%
Rhode Island	63	I	Lincoln Chafee (I) (R in 2010)	17	16.2	16.2	-4.7%	0.0%
Maine	58	R	Paul LePage (R ) (D in 2010)	29.3	28.5	28.3	-2.7%	-0.7%
Michigan	57	R	Rick Snyder (R)  (D in 2010)	177.2	182.9	182.7	3.2%	-0.1%
New Jersey	57	R	Chris Christie (R)	157.3	147.1	147.5	-6.5%	0.3%
New Mexico	57	R	Susana Martinez ( R) (D in 2010)	61.4	60.2	60	-2.0%	-0.3%
Wisconsin	56	R	Scott Walker (R)   (D in 2010)	106.5	95.1	96	-10.7%	0.9%
Nevada	55	R	Brian Sandoval (R)	37.9	36.5	37.1	-3.7%	1.6%
Pennsylvania	55	R	Tom Corbett (R) (D in 2010)	167.8	163.2	162.9	-2.7%	-0.2%
Iowa	54	R	Terry Branstad (R)   (D in 2010)	68.2	64.8	64.4	-5.0%	-0.6%
Virginia	53	R	Bob McDonnell (R)	156.6	158.2	159	1.0%	0.5%
Florida	51	R	Rick Scott (R)	220.6	215.7	214.8	-2.2%	-0.4%
Ohio	51	R	John Kasich (R)  (D in 2010)	174.5	170.5	170.6	-2.3%	0.1%
Indiana	50	R	Mitchell Daniels (R)	129.4	118.6	116.9	-8.3%	-1.5%
Georgia	47	R	Nathan Deal (R)	164.9	154.5	154.7	-6.3%	0.1%
Arizona	45	R	Jan Brewer(R)	93.6	86	86.4	-8.1%	0.5%
North Dakota	45	R	Jack Salrymple (R)	23.8	25.2	25.2	5.9%	0.0%
South Carolina	45	R	Nikki Haley (R)	100.5	97.7	97	-2.8%	-0.7%
South Dakota	45	R	Dennis Daugaard (R)	18.3	18.8	18.9	2.7%	0.5%
Texas	44	R	Rick Perry (R)	370	367.8	368.4	-0.6%	0.2%
Mississippi	43	R	Phil Bryant (R)	61.6	60.5	60.8	-1.8%	0.5%
Kansas	42	R	Sam Brownback (R)  (D in 2010)	55	54.4	54.3	-1.1%	-0.2%
Nebraska	42	R	David Heineman (R)	39.1	41.9	42.3	7.2%	0.9%
Tennessee	42	R	Bill Haslam (R) (D in 2010)	98.3	101.8	101.5	3.6%	-0.3%
Louisiana	40	R	Bobby Jindal (R)	117.8	107.6	107.1	-8.7%	-0.5%
Alabama	39	R	Robert Bentley (R)	110.2	105.1	105.6	-4.6%	0.5%
Alaska	38	R	Sean Parnell (R)	25.1	26.4	26	5.2%	-1.5%
Idaho	36	R	Butch Otter (R)	30.5	28.4	28.5	-6.9%	0.4%
Oklahoma	34	R	Mary Fallin (R)	85.6	88.4	89.1	3.3%	0.8%
Utah	34	R	Gary Herbert (R)	65.3	69	70.2	5.7%	1.7%
Wyoming	33	R	Matt Mead (R)   (D in 2010)	15.8	17.3	17.4	9.5%	0.6%