Posted on 09/13/2011 6:54:40 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Opponents hope Rick Perrys spending record as governor may be his Achilles heel.
During the debate at the Reagan Library last week, the Romney campaign blasted out an e-mail to reporters entitled, Perrys Record on Spending, with an ominous warning that under Perrys leadership, total state spending has increased by an average of nearly 17 percent each budget cycle. Keep Conservatives United, a PAC supporting Michele Bachmanns candidacy, released a TV ad earlier this month charging Perry with doubl[ing] spending in a decade.
But factor in inflation and Texas population boom, and the uptick in spending becomes significantly more reasonable. The same analysis by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the Romney campaign used as a source for the 17-percent spending growth each budget cycle reported that once adjusted for population and inflation, that rate falls to 4.2 percent. But that rate includes federal dollars sent to Texas. Subtract that, and Perry has decreased spending the first time any Texas governor has done so since World War II. When you exclude federal dollars, state spending adjusted for population growth and inflation actually has gone down by 6 percent, FactCheck.org reported on Perrys record.
I think the Texas record on spending on the whole has been pretty good, says Joshua Trevino, vice president of communications at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a free-market think tank. (Full disclosure: TPPF receives the royalties earned by Perrys book, Fed Up!) Trevino cites a Kaiser Family Foundation study of the states 2009 fiscal year spending per capita that ranked Texas 47th in the nation.
From our perspective, wed like to be 50th, Trevino admits, but goes on to note that being near the bottom is not a bad place to be.
Perry also received praise from Club for Growth, which called Perrys spending record excellent in the groups presidential white-paper analysis of his overall record. The report credits Perrys frequent use of the veto for Texass slow rate of spending growth: During his tenure as Governor, Perry vetoed hundreds of millions of dollars worth of spending, perhaps even a lot more.
Chris Edwards, director of tax-policy studies at the Cato Institute, compared Perrys spending record with those of other governors and decided that Perry was rather centrist on spending overall. Crunching the data, Edwards found that under Perry, per capita spending in Texas had risen by 18 percent, the same amount that spending in other states increased, on average, in the years Perry was governor.
Perry has been willing to accept federal funds. He turned down stimulus funds targeted for assistance to the unemployed ($555 million) but accepted nearly $17 billion in stimulus funds targeted at other efforts. An analysis by PolitiFact Texas found that Texas had shifted from a donor state (paying more in taxes than receiving in federal funds) to a recipient state under Perrys tenure. On an annual basis between 1981 and 2003, Texas almost always paid more in federal taxes than it got back from Uncle Sam. But since 2003 the reverse has been true, with Texas receiving more than it paid in five out of seven years, which is close to routine, PolitiFact Texas reported in April.
But accepting federal funds isnt the only chink in Perrys small-spending armor: He also cant point to the same experience with budget wars that a Scott Walkertype would have accumulated over the years. Having governed in Texas, Perry benefited from having a conservative legislature which means he is untested on his ability to cut spending when confronted by a different kind of legislature and fiscal situation, observes Edwards.
He would face a totally different set of spending problems at the federal level. I think its an open question, Edwards says of what a President Perry would be like on spending. I think it is fair when youre comparing a Perry with a Romney, or formerly a Pawlenty someone who had a left-leaning legislature to maybe give them more credit if they did fight to keep spending down.
Katrina Trinko is an NRO reporter.
Just goes to show that telling only half the story is to tell a lie.
I remember Romney in 2008. He was for spending everywhere left and right. Pandering to Iowa, pandering to Michigan.
So, is Perry another Bush?
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