What’s most noticeable about Governor Pataki’s three terms in office is what he failed to achieve, not what he actually achieved. Let’s remember what he so magnificently promised in his January 1995 inaugural address.

Preaching the virtues of limited government, he promised to “cut government spending and cut it again – remembering always – that by downsizing government we can restore people’s confidence in the future by expanding individual responsibility and individual freedom.” He reminded listeners, “Discontent with punitive taxation and the excessive bureaucracy of an oppressive government was exactly the emotion that put the spark to our own revolution and the democratic way of life it gave us.”

When Mr. Pataki took office, New York had the highest state and local tax burden in the country. He has cut some taxes while in office, but New York remains one of the nation’s highest-taxing states – the Tax Foundation estimates that this year New York has the country’s second-highest state and local tax burden. Not much progress for 10 years’ work. As for the size of government, the state budget is now at $106.6 billion, up from about $62 billion in 1994. That growth in government spending easily outpaces both inflation and growth in the gross state product over that period.

Mr. Pataki also promised in his inaugural speech to make the “kind of change that can make this state of dreamers and doers, innovators and builders – the leading state in the nation, the Empire State once again. “According to federal Department of Labor statistics, the total private sector job growth in the state – during the 10 years from December 1994 to December 2004 – was 8.5%. For upstate New York, which didn’t benefit from Mayor Giuliani’s tax-cutting and crime-tackling initiatives, over the 10 years, the total private-sector job growth was an anemic 5.1%. It’s not that all the jobs are moving to warmer climates in the American South or overseas to China; during the same period, Vermont, which neighbors upstate New York, had private-sector job growth totaling 13.8%, New Hampshire’s was 14.8%, and the national average was 14.4%. Mr. Pataki can look to the high taxes he’s left in place as to why.

In April, in response to speculation then that he wouldn’t seek re-election, we noted other disappointments in Mr. Pataki’s stint as governor. A death penalty he signed, after promising to be tough on crime in his election bid, was knocked down with help from a judge he appointed. And while he did pass into law the state’s first charter-school law, for which he deserves credit, charter schools are capped at a scant 100 across the state, and Mr. Pataki never championed the idea of vouchers.

Mr. Pataki’s advocates make the case that his job was made difficult because he faced a state Assembly that is controlled by the Democrats. On May 15, 2003, the state Legislature overrode 119 of Mr. Pataki’s budget vetoes, restoring more than $2 billion in higher taxes on income and sales. That points to another failure of the governor – his neglecting the state Republican Party. Democrats still hold most of the top offices in the state. Mr. Pataki failed to use his position to increase the party’s appeal and power across the state, and so free-market policies are not emerging from where they should.

For all those shortcomings, contrary to the stereotype, the former mayor of Peekskill is no lightweight. He has free-market, tax-cutting instincts and beliefs. Along with Mr. Giuliani, he rose to the occasion after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and he spoke movingly at the Republican National Convention in 2004 of the way in which the nation rallied to help while the pile at ground zero was still smoldering. And as a grandson of immigrants from Hungary, Ireland, and Italy, Mr. Pataki has been an important and articulate voice for the new Americans who are important in bringing the city and state economic and cultural vitality.

The most hopeful interpretation of his decision to step down shortly after a visit to Iowa is that Mr. Pataki has ambitions for a political future on a national scale. That would be good news for New Yorkers, because to succeed in Republican national politics, Mr. Pataki will need to make the most of the year and a half he has left in office. That’s enough time for him to reread the speech with which he kicked off his governorship and start fulfilling the promises he made. It’s not too late for him to set an example to those who wish to follow.