Maine gets an A?

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The Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) recently released a new report called “Assets and Opportunity Scorecard” for each of the fifty states. In this report, Maine scored an A. Given that that the report is suppose to measure “financial security” this sounds like a good development for Maine’s business climate. However, the CFED report has nothing to do with boosting Maine’s business climate. With a little research into the report, it becomes apparent that CFED is a liberal think-tank pushing a pro-governmnet, pro-dependency agenda. Consider these nuggets pulled from their index.
The index touts that having a state minimum wage higher than the federal minimum wage is a good thing for business. Ask any business owner if this is good for business.
The index supports the expansion of the earned income tax credit. First, the EITC is bad tax policy—welfare should not be hidden in the tax code. Second, the EITC discourages as much as encourages work among low-income taxpayers.
The index favors Medicaid/SCHIP expansion. Again, increasing dependency on government is their goal. Our recent report on Medicaid/SCHIP expansion details why this is bad public policy.
Finally, another sign of CFED’s liberal ideology, see their index on “state tax incidence studies.