Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, hit Gov. Rick Perry, R-Texas, pretty hard during yesterday’s debate for raising taxes and spending in the state they both call home. But Katrina Trinko at National Review Online looks at Perry’s spending record in her column today; the data indicate Perry as among the lowest spending governors in the country.
Here’s an excerpt from the Trinko column:
But factor in inflation and Texas’ population boom, and the uptick in spending becomes significantly more reasonable. The same analysis by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the Romney campaign used as a source for the 17-percent spending growth each budget cycle reported that “once adjusted for population and inflation, that rate falls to 4.2 percent.” But that rate includes federal dollars sent to Texas. Subtract that, and Perry has decreased spending — the first time any Texas governor has done so since World War II. “When you exclude federal dollars, state spending adjusted for population growth and inflation actually has gone down by 6 percent,” FactCheck.org reported on Perry’s record.
