Speak for yourself. He is a social, fiscal conservative, pro-life, and a friend to Israel. This is what is important to me. He is not perfect. If you want a perfect candidate, he/she is not there that can beat Obama.
The Texas Enterprise Fund doles out millions of tax dollars to Perry supporters who then kick-backed to his campaign coffers. TESF also gave $20 million to Countrywide Mtge---the crooks at the heart of the US financial meltdown---- Ricky said the $20 million was to (cough) "create jobs."
The TEF has invested more than $435.3 million and closed the deal on projects generating 58,179 new jobs and more than $14.6 billion in capital investment in Texas.” A call to the Governor’s office confirmed that the TEF is funded entirely by taxpayer dollars. But critics point to the fact that funding usually ends up in metropolitan areas, not every county gets an equal shot at the cash.
The website provides links to lists of awardees, which include, Samsung, ebay, Cabela’s, Home Depot, T-Mobile, Bank of America, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Kohl’s Department Store, Office Depot, Caterpillar, and the Texas Institute for Genomic Medicine — a part of the Texas A & M University System which, among other things, provides research mice to institutions worldwide.
With the exception of research mice, one would think these corporate giants would have plenty of their own money, (do Facebook and Bank of America really need to use our taxpayer dollars?), but it doesn’t stop there. Some of these listed (Cabela’s and Home Depot) have received awards to open shops in multiple Texas cities. And consider the real-life story of a small business owner in Austin, Bob Dacy, owner of a family hardware store, who watched as his tax dollars lured his competition to "open for business" right down the road.
The $200 million Texas Emergency Technology Fund was created at Perry's behest in 2005 to act as a kind of public-sector venture capital firm, largely to provide funding for tech start-ups in Texas. Since then, the fund has committed nearly $200 million tax dollars to fund 133 companies. Perry told a group of CEOs in May that the fund's "strategic investments are what's helping us keep groundbreaking innovations in the state." A select few including Perry enjoy ultimate decision-making power over the fund's investments. Dallas Morning News found that some $16 million from the tech fund went to firms in which major Perry contributors were either investors or officers, and $27 million from the fund went to companies founded or advised by six advisory board members. The tangle of interests surrounding the fund has raised eyebrows throughout the state, especially among conservatives who think the fund is a misplaced use of taxpayer dollars to start with.
Clearly, your definition of 'fiscal conservative' differs from mine.