text: Texas Gov. Rick Perry, left, looks out at the sellout crowd that came to hear him at the Clear Lake Hilton Monday with State Rep. Larry Taylor, center, and Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership President Bob Mitchell.Mary Alys Cherry
  Texas is the best state when it comes to business development but the Legislature has to continue to make sure it stays that way, Gov. Rick Perry said at a luncheon at the Clear Lake Hilton Monday (May 7).
  Perry spoke in front of about 300 Clear Lake Area Chamber of Commerce and Bay Area Houston Economic Partnership members, including many elected officials, to talk about his Texas Budget Compact, which he announced last month.
  The compact supports a constitutional limit to spending to the growth of population and inflation, opposes any tax increases, supports a permanent tax exemption for small businesses, demands preserving a strong Rainy Day Fund and proposes cutting unnecessary government programs and agencies.
  Speaking in front of exclusively fellow Republican lawmakers, such as state representatives Larry Taylor, Ken Legler and John Davis, and state Sen. Mike Jackson, Perry admitted that he may be preaching to the choir but said it is important for Texas not to get lazy.
  “We got to look into ways how we can maintain our lead,” Perry said, and that is by following his budget compact.
  Other states, such as Florida, Louisiana, New Mexico, Arkansas and Oklahoma, are on track to become more business-friendly and will pass Texas if it gets too comfortable, he said.
  “Just like whether it’s on the athletic field or whether it’s in a small business, competition is what will make us all stronger.”
  Saying that, according to a Chief Executive magazine ranking, nine out of the top 10 best states for business are led by Republicans, Perry said that proves that their philosophy is working.
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  “It’s no longer just rhetoric, the record is there across this country,” he said.
  Perry also publicly endorsed Taylor, who is running for the state Senate, crediting him for being a “proven conservative” who has been working to reduce government regulation and playing an important role in reforming the Texas Windstorm Insurance Agency and passing tort reform.
  Speaking from just across the Johnson Space Center, Perry also called for more funding for NASA and lamented the abandonment of another Moon mission.
  “I remind people in the other 49 states on a fairly regular basis that the first words that ever came from the Moon was ‘Houston,’” Pery said, and that “if we’re ever going to get back to the Moon again, we’re going to have to have a new president of the United States,” drawing applause from the audience.