Although it may be fashionable, in this era of tea parties and Bush bailouts and Republicans in Name Only, to dismiss the importance of party affiliation in predicting governmental decisions, at the state level partisanship has become a fairly reliable predictor of fiscal policy outcomes.

For example, during last year’s budget woes in most state capitals, state legislatures raised taxes by a total of $24 billion. There was plenty of blame to go around, particularly when it came to targeted tax hikes on, say, cigarettes and alcohol. But in every one of the twelve states that raised personal income taxes, Democrats controlled both legislative chambers.

Two trends are in evidence. In several states where squishy Republicans have been instrumental in passing tax hikes over the past decade, they’ve been defeated in subsequent GOP primaries or otherwise brought to heel. Meanwhile, the ranks of truly fiscally conservative Democrats in state legislatures have thinned even more, thanks both to retirements and some primary challenges, yielding Democratic caucuses that think nothing of raising taxes whenever a state budget gap appears.

In short, bad RINOs are an endangered species. But good DINOs (think the Flintstone family pet) are virtually extinct.