Rick Perry Has The Oil and Gas Industry In His State

[Yavin4]

IOW, he has a major industry which is doing well because of global demand for energy, and even given this huge benefit, his state still has high unemployment just like most states. In addition, his budget is in deficit. One would think that given a multi-billion dollar industry in your state, Texas should be an economic utopia which it aint.

Unless Rick Perry has a plan to put Oil companies in every state in the union, how in the hell is he going to "create jobs".

[Imajika]

1. Budget deficit?

My understanding is Texas has a balanced budget law and closed their deficit in the special session via massive cuts to their social safety net - including crushing cuts to education and other vital services.

[Honeycombe8]

3. I'm in TX. Last I heard, we have a large deficit (AND we had big cuts in eduation).

Texas is at the bottom of the pole of states, when it comes to education quality and statistics.

[Imajika]

4. Texas was facing a large budget deficit, and closed it entirely with budget cuts...

http://money.cnn.com/2011/01/19/news/economy/texas_budget_deficit/index.htm

"NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Texas lawmakers unveiled a Spartan budget late Tuesday night that slashes $31 billion in spending to close the state's massive budget deficit. Education, Medicaid and corrections would be hit particularly hard.

House legislators were forced to rely on spending cuts to close the shortfall -- estimated at between $15 billion and $27 billion -- because Republican leaders pledged not to raise taxes. They also did not touch the state's projected $9.4 billion rainy day fund, one of the most flush in the nation....(more)"

[Honeycombe8]

2. Louisiana is an oil & gas state, too. It isn't doing well, tho. TX has historically done better

than the rest of the country, economically, regardless of who is the governor. I'm not sure why. It's size is probably one thing. It's a HUGE state with very diverse economy, in part because of it's size.