Cowen's NY Times column explicitly states he will not address whether state and local spending should have been cut.

Judge as of June 2012. True: the text of Cowen's New York Times column in question (Economic View, around spring 2012, on government spending or employment cuts) contains an explicit statement that he is not addressing whether state and local spending should have been cut. Mostly true: the column contains such a disclaimer, phrased slightly differently (e.g. about public-sector jobs or austerity at the state and local level) but with the same meaning. Mixed: the column hedges on the question only implicitly or in part. Mostly false: the column contains no such disclaimer but does avoid the question. False: the column contains no such statement, or it argues for or against those cuts.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 Broken Trust Takes Time to Mend Mercatus Center · 16 June 2012 Own record

   “Should state and local government jobs be such a low priority? There is considerable disagreement on this issue, but voters in most states have hardly been screaming to have those fiscal decisions overturned.”

2. E2 Broken Trust Takes Time to Mend Mercatus Center · 16 June 2012 Own record

   “Simply recreating those state and local government jobs, without making other significant and confidence-restoring changes, may not bring much prosperity.”

3. E3 Americans Want to Keep Teachers, Cops and Firefighters on the Job The Nation · 19 June 2012

   “In a column in the New York Times yesterday, Tyler Cowen suggested that it’s Americans’ lack of trust in government, which has been steadily eroding over recent decades.”

4. E4 Is lack of trust a fundamental macro problem? - Marginal REVOLUTION Marginal Revolution · 19 June 2012 Own record

   “Ezra responds to my column of Sunday with this post.”

5. E5 Tyler Cowen's Column, Again - Econlib Econlib · 20 June 2012

   “I read the column as strongly implying that macroeconomic outcomes would be better if government were spending and borrowing more.”

6. E6 Lack of trust is one reason why macro policy is underperforming - Marginal REVOLUTION Marginal REVOLUTION · 18 June 2012 Own record

   “In response, some people have moralized about this shift — sometimes by telling voters they’re stupid to let government shrink.”

The evidence gives only excerpts from the column, not its full text. The closest passage (E1) asks whether state and local government jobs should be such a low priority, notes "considerable disagreement on this issue," and remarks that voters in most states have hardly been pushing to overturn those fiscal decisions. That reads like a hedge, but it is not clearly an explicit statement that he won't address the question. Other excerpts (E2, E7) and outside commentary (E3, E6) neither confirm nor rule out an explicit disclaimer somewhere else in the column, so the evidence doesn't settle which criterion applies.