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Find or Refer a Contractor in Tyler

Governor Perry Expected to Announce His Candidacy for President

August 8th, 2011

Rick Perry announces run for president

Well, allow me to be the first to say that it appears I was wrong in my assessment of whether Governor Perry would run for president.  Back in May I said that I doubted that the Texas Governor would seek the Republican nomination, but how things have changed since then! With the national economy on the decline, and the GOP looking for a top tier candidate to lead the Presidential ticket, our executive is more and more in demand. Now I’ve had my issues with the governor from time to time, and to be honest he hasn’t been my first choice, but in the absence of any other recognizable candidates, Perry is looking more and more like the most viable choice. He’s a stalwart defender of the second and the tenth amendments, business friendly and for the most part, fiscally conservative. And I must confess to a certain cynical pleasure in the idea of the country choosing another Texas Governor after being told that surely no Texan would ever be elected after Mr. Bush.  

                 At the end of the day our state has the healthiest economy of any other state in the union, and that’s no accident! It is in fact a credit to a capitalist friendly, pro- business, low tax, right to work, state and local government. Like him or not, at some point the governor deserves at least a share in the credit for our state’s fiscal health. It is largely on this basis that republicans all over the nation are clamoring for him to run for the nomination. And according to a number of sources I’ve read, Mr. Perry is expected to declare that he’s jumping into the race this weekend. The announcement would come just a week after the governor’s day of prayer which was held in Houston this past weekend. While it may or may not be what he intended, the event certainly helped to raise his visibility and certify his conservative Christian credentials. While we sometimes disagree with him, Mr. Perry has earned his stripes here. If he’ll take the same economic course nationally, that he’s taken here in Texas, in my opinion, he’s worth supporting.

To read my original article on the governor’s chances visit the following webpage at http://www.tylertxdirectory.com/9033/is-governor-perry-going-to-run-for-president/ .    

Texas Job Growth Leads the Nation

June 3rd, 2011

I read a report yesterday or the day before, confirming what most of us living in Texas strongly suspected. Our state is well ahead of the curve in terms of job growth. The cities of Dallas and Ft.Worth rank above the rest of the nation in terms of job growth. Houston is a close second. The jobless rate in the metroplex is down slightly from eight percent to roughly seven and a half, admittedly a small decline, but a good one considering the national average is nine percent. There are a number of ways to crunch the numbers, obviously, but in terms of both population and job growth Texas is definitely better off than most of our sister states; far better off than some. I’m not suggesting that times are exactly good here, just better.

The category of growth I found most interesting, both for me personally and for Tyler, comes in the area of Education and Health Care. These two fields seem to be growing albeit slowly, with an interesting stipulation: it includes private as opposed to public schools. The article I read cites 6.4 percent growth in the Ft. Worth area, and 5.2 in the Dallas area. While these numbers relate specifically to the metroplex, this category is of course the largest field of employment in East Texas. With the public schools in Texas experience big cutbacks, private schools are growing, and hiring new staff. While its admittedly anecdotal evidence, I can attest to this, as I recently accepted a position at a new private school in our area.

I think the relative health of the Texas economy comes as a result of a generally pro-business administration, and a lack of state income tax, which encourages immigration from states like California (and others), that are incredibly overburdened by regulation and taxation. Incidentally, the Bureau of Labor put San Francisco near the bottom of the job growth list with -0.3 percent growth when compared to last year.

Rick Perry Returns to Tyler

November 12th, 2010

Fresh from his most recent election victory nearly two weeks ago, Governor Perry visited Tyler again today. He wasn’t stumping this time however. Instead, Mr. Perry held a book signing in coordination with the Grassroots America group. The book is entitled: “Fed Up — Our Fight to Save America from Washington.”The book highlights the importance of state and local authority, and the need for citizen action to oppose a growing Federal government. All proceeds for the book go to “Texas Public Policy Foundation’s Center for Tenth Amendment Studies.”

Over the past couple of years, particularly since the election of President Obama, we’ve seen the governor being politically born again. Tenth amendment or state’s rights issues have been central to Governor Perry’s administration of late and he has spent a great deal of time traveling the state and country making a case for smaller government. While I like him well enough, I’ve been a sort of tacit supporter of Mr. Perry’s over the years; mostly because he has never been considered a rock solid conservative. Indeed it seems that he tends to become more conservative around election time. But In light of our current political situation, Mr. Perry has come to resemble Ronald Reagan… ok not even close, but you get my point. His pro- business and generally low tax policies have kept our state fiscally sound, or more so than many or our sister states, in tough financial times. He has also been an advocate for citizen groups like Grassroots America and the Tea Party since their inception. The governor’s participation in events like the one in Tyler today, have been frequently chalked up to election year politics, but with November second behind us, and the county in a decidedly anti- government mood, he may see an opportunity to move toward the right on a more permanent basis. Of course, only time will tell if he’s actually had something of a political epiphany. In the meantime you’re welcome in Tyler Governor, come back anytime!

For more information on Grassroots America and what they’re doing in our community, go to the following web sites: http://gawtp.com/ or http://www.facebook.com/pages/Grassroots-America-We-The-People/157828612919.

Texas Governor’s Race

October 5th, 2010
Bill White

Bill White

I’m just old enough to remember a Texas Governor named White. He was a soft on crime, liberal tax and spender who was defeated after just four years in office. Well, there’s another White running for Texas Governor, and he shares more than just a last name with the former Governor. Bill White, the one- time Houston Mayor, is making his rounds through Texas this fall. He’s desperately trying to avoid being seen with or generally connected to President Obama, all the while supporting nearly all his initiatives, including Obamacare, Cap and Trade etc. Bill White claims that our state is not leading our nation to the degree that it should. Tell that to out of state Americans who are moving here in huge numbers due to the Obama recession.

Now I’ll be the first to admit that I have often disagreed with Governor Perry, however it is his largely pro-business positions that have allowed our state to sit out this depression, relative to the experiences of the other states. Bill White is playing the very same anti- business anti- insurance tune the President has been playing the last few years, hoping against hope we won’t place the melody. The real question however is this, in an election year when the American people are poised to send severance checks to more than half of congress, and having a “D” by one’s name is a political death sentence, how can the most conservative state in the Union even consider voting a liberal trial lawyer turned politician into the governor’s office?

In 1983 Texas elected a Liberal Democrat followed by a not exactly conservative Republican. In 1990 we tried electing another Liberal Democrat, and again after four years we decided it wasn’t for us. Since then we’ve had two middle of the road Republican Governors in the forms of George W. Bush and Rick Perry. And while they’ve not been as conservative as some of us would have preferred, our state does in fact lead the nation in economic stability. The fact is this is not the year to experiment with another one term Liberal Dem. In an election year when Nancy Pelosi’s state of California is on the cusp of electing an actual conservative as governor, voting for White amounts to plucking economic and political defeat from the jaws of victory.  This more liberal socialist road the country is traveling is not where most Texans what to go. So what does this mean for Tylerites and East Texans?

Rick Perry

Rick Perry

It means that as a more conservative bastion, we’re going to have to put our feet down, and continue to wrestle against the more liberal urban centers in our own state. Even Texas cities like Houston and Austin can drag an otherwise conservative state into the blue. And let me assure the reader that I love those cities, and I gladly visit them regularly. I even spend money there. But it’s bad enough that the city of Sam Houston was once led by a man who governed more like Mirabeau Lamar, (at least in terms of fiscal policy). And that’s probably unfair to Lamar. It would be a shame to have Sam’s entire republic governed by him too.