Alabama Governor Robert Bentley was elected in the great Tea Party wave of 2010, an election cycle when the calls for reductions to the size of government were louder than ever. The first-term governor responded with a plan he dubbed the “Road to a Billion Dollars in Savings,” which sought to “right size” Alabama’s state government.
A new study released Tuesday by Conservative Intelligence briefing found that of the 26 new governors elected nationwide in 2010, Bentley has managed to reduce the size of his state’s bureaucracy at the third fastest pace.
Here’s a chart that shows the ten states that have reduced their number of state government employees between Jan. 2011 and Nov. 2013.
But Alabama’s bureaucracy still has some room to shrink. As you can see in the chart below, Alabama continues to have a relatively high number of state employees compared to the state’s population.
Alabama has one state employee for roughly every 47 residents. That’s more than any other state on the list below with the exception of Hawaii, which has a bloated bureaucracy of one state employee for approximately every 20 residents.
“Republican Gov. [Robert] Bentley promised to save $1 billion by the end of his first term with a plan that involved ‘right-sizing’ Alabama’s state employee workforce through attrition,” David Freddoso of Conservative Intelligence Briefing said. “He got it done a year early… So far, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says he’s shed about 8,100 state workers. Alabama is still well-staffed with one state employee for every 47 residents.”
Unfortunately, less than half of governors elected in 2010 have less state government employees today than they did the day they were elected.
“The few governors who downsized in hard times are defying a political law of gravity,” Freddoso concluded. “They deserve credit.”
Follow Cliff on Twitter @Cliff_Sims
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