Perry began with a somewhat bloated state government, courtesy of George Bush and his D mentor, Bob Bullock. So: 1. we should have had some real cuts at the beginning of Perry’s first term and 2. there is no reason why spending needs to track population growth and inflation.
Because you ignored the second point, which I made previously, consider Texas DMV. In 2001 maintaining “current services” could have been accomplished by expanding the ranks of DMV drones and giving them colas. Alternatively, license renewal and other functions could have been put on line, thereby providing better service than the 2001 “current services” and at a small fraction of the cost of the old DMV “service” model. In recent years DMV has migrated to the net.
There are many other areas in which genuine government services (there aren’t many) could have been maintained or improved while cutting costs, not to mention eliminating entire departments and commissions. Even more important, however, was controlling the border and getting rid of illegals, who are bankrupting hopspitals and causing welfare expenditures to soar. Perry has been very bad on immigration and has not been willing to fight to shrink the bloated government that Austin has created. The reason? Spending has constituencies, and Perry hasn’t been willing to fight.
Texas has too much debt, but that really isn’t Perry’s fault, although I don’t remember Perry ever campaigning against bonds.
In any event, any way you look at it, Perry’s spending record is not strongly conservative.
I don’t care about Alaska - I am not holding up Palin as perfect candidate. In fact, I might prefer Perry to Palin, if she ever decides to get in the race.
Did you not even bother reading the figures I gave you? Texas has the 2nd lowest state debt to GDP ratio and the 2nd lowest state debt per capita in the nation, and it went down from 8th lowest and 7th lowest in 2000, respectively, during the Perry administration.
In any event, any way you look at it, Perry’s spending record is not strongly conservative.
Okay, name another state or governor that you do consider to have a strongly conservative spending record. I'd like to take a look at that. Because if 4th lowest in spending and 2nd lowest in debt is not a conservative enough record, I'd like to see what is.