Jon Keller interviews independent gubernatorial candidate Christy Mihos. On almost everything, he gave evasive and inconsequential answers. For instance, Mihos is touting a refund on local property taxes using general state revenues. Sensibly, Keller pressed Mihos on what taxes he might raise when state revenues inevitably fall. Mihos’s response?
State revenues collapse because more people, more educated workforce, are leaving the state and we’ve got to shore that up, stop the bleeding of people leaving the state, jobs leaving the state.
Maybe that answer will play well, I don’t know, but it’s a dumb thing to say. With someone else, I’d assume dishonesty, but from what he said and how he said it, I get the feeling that Mihos doesn’t understand what a business cycle is, or at least doesn’t believe in their existence. Also, since he keeps touting the current surplus, how does that jive with presumed bleeding of well-educated workers from the state? If he’s touting recent census figures that have been publicized, those reveal a steady decline in population from 2000 to present, whereas state revenues have fluxuated wildly in that time.
In my view, this is prime evidence of why the entrepreneur doesn’t always (usually?) make the best governor: problems that take on one character close up (all things being equal, a business owner wants an educated workforce to hire from) require a different perspective from a macro level (recessions happen because of a drop in aggregate demand).
No comments have been added to this post yet.