Romney governed best state in America

Many political pundits wonder why, with the Republican primaries over, Mitt Romney still rarely talks about his days as Massachusetts governor. 

Well, Slate magazine just gave the presumptive GOP presidential nominee a wide opening of opportunity.

Essentially, Slate has declared that Massachusetts is the best state in America. 

We’ve all heard the jokes – Taxachusetts, the People’s Republic of Massachusetts – which were a key reason why Romney stayed away from Bay State references during the primaries.

But Slate’s Mark Vanhoenacker took a look at numerous research groups’ rankings of the 50 states and found that Massachusetts ranks at or near the best in numerous quality-of-life categories: life expectancy, infant mortality, quality education, number of uninsured, suicide, divorce, obesity, energy efficiency and traffic fatalities.

As governor as recently as 2006, Romney can certainly take partial credit for all of these accomplishments.

But there’s more. The benefits of being a Bay Stater go beyond social well-being to incomes, finances and employment.

“If America wants to be a healthy, smart, rich, globalized, high-tech powerhouse, we arguably have no better model than Massachusetts,” Vanhoenacker concluded.

What he found is that, even though Massachusetts has the 11^th-highest state taxes, its moderate, pragmatic politics have focused on issues that trump taxes.

Here’s a sample:

“Finally, let’s take a purely dollars-and-cents look at Massachusetts. No matter where you start on the political spectrum, this is the most important question, because many Americans believe we must choose between social investments and a competitive economy. So what economic sacrifices is Massachusetts making to achieve such extraordinary educational and social outcomes?

“None, apparently. Massachusetts has the second-highest per capita personal income among the states. Unemployment in March was 6.5 percent, well below the national 8.2 percent. Its state per-capita GDP ranks sixth-highest. Its median household income (a measure of widely-distributed income) is fifth.

“…Massachusetts has the highest per-capita venture capital, patents, and technology licensing of 10 leading high-tech states. Worker productivity in Massachusetts (GDP per employed person) is the third-highest in the world. And research and development spending as a share of GDP in Massachusetts is higher than any country anywhere. … (In) CNBC’s index of America’s top states for business … Massachusetts came in sixth. Not bad for the People’s Republic.”

You can read more here.