1. A computer implemented method for governing access to data on a partitioned database comprising the steps of: providing a computer with a processor and a memory; establishing the database in the computer memory; parsing a query on a local partition to determine one or more target partitions that are involved with the query and creating a plan of steps to process the query; estimating a cost to execute the query on the local partition; sending the plan steps to the target partitions to estimate a cost to execute the plan steps on the target partitions; accumulating the estimated cost to execute the query on the local partition and the estimated cost to execute the plan steps on the target partitions; determining whether a total cost to execute the query on the local partition and the target partitions exceeds a governor threshold set up as a global governor threshold; executing the plan steps if the total cost to execute the query on the local partition and the target partitions does not exceed the governor threshold; and outputting data from the query if executing the plan steps.