From John Myers at Sacramento’s News 10 (ABC Television):
Texas Gov. Rick Perry decided to take another poke at California in a national radio program Friday, saying state leaders have made even the beauty of California not worth the cost of living here.
“Northern California all the way down to San Diego, absolutely beautiful,” Perry told conservative radio host Laura Ingraham. “And I tell people that’s Exhibit A of how government can foul something up so bad, that you would leave that beauty to come live somewhere else. But that’s exactly what’s happened.”
Perry’s comments come a few days after a public-private Texas economic development groupmade a small, but noticed, radio ad buy in California. The radio spot features the veteran GOP governor urging California business owners to look eastward.
The squabble only got more national attention on Tuesday, when Gov. Jerry Brown told me after a West Sacramento event that the radio ad amounted to “barely a fart”.
Perry’s office reports the Texas chief executive will travel to San Francisco on Sunday, and visit Silicon Valley, Orange County, and Los Angeles before leaving on Wednesday. Other reports say he’s also expected to meet with executives at an Oxnard manufacturing company that’s considering an expansion of its operations.
Perry told radio host Ingraham that Texas is simply more friendly to business.
“People are voting with their feet,” he said on the program. “They’re moving to those states that have low taxes, a fair, responsible, regulatory climate. A legal system that doesn’t allow for over-suing.”
Gov. Brown’s spokesman, Gil Duran, responded to the latest back-and-forth by pointing out that some prominent Lone Star State companies, namely Texas Instruments and Dell Computers, both chose California in recent investments.
“We hope Gov. Perry enjoys his visit to the Golden State,” wrote Duran in an email Friday afternoon.
News10/KXTV
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Laura Ingraham is heard every weeknight from 6 – 8 PM on AM 1450 KVML.
