Charlie Baker is a Republican health care executive who hopes to unseat Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick this November, in part with a plan he cleverly calls ” Baker’s dozen ,” or 13 ways to save taxpayers well over $1 billion that includes various schemes for shrinking state government. “Right now, under this administration, state government is not working,” Baker says in a recent campaign ad.

Meanwhile in New York, Andrew Cuomo’s gubernatorial campaign has unveiled “The new agenda: A Plan for Action,” that in 252 pages details how the current attorney general wants to freeze salary increases for state employees and reduce by 20 percent the number of state agencies toward “rightsizing” a state government that he says is too big, ineffective and expensive. “The New York State government was at one time a national model. Now, unfortunately, it’s a national disgrace,” says the son of former Governor Mario Cuomo, who is favored in the polls to follow his father into the governor’s mansion.

There are proposals for change in virtually every one of the 37 states where governors will be elected this November. Some of the ideas are genuinely substantive. Most of the time, though, they avoid specific plans for raising revenue or cutting spending and focus on governmental process…

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