KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Texas Governor Rick Perry was in Missouri on Thursday night. He’s taking on Missouri Governor Jay Nixon’s veto of lower taxes; critics said he was here to poach jobs.
The Missouri Chamber of Commerce invited Gov. Perry to speak at a “Grow Missouri” event near St. Louis on Thursday night to promote tax cuts. Long before, Missouri’s Secretary of State Jason Kander said Gov. Perry’s campaign crossed a line.
There were mostly cheers coming from this crowd of Missourians as Gov. Perry spoke about tax breaks for the show me state.
“This is a discussion about how America becomes stronger, and Missouri can help lead that,” Gov. Perry said.
Gov. Perry spoke out against Gov. Nixon’s decision to veto legislation that would have cut the state’s corporate tax rate nearly in half and the personal income tax rate by half a percentage point.
Gov. Perry is appearing in ads released after Gov. Nixon’s veto. They not only criticize the veto, but go a step further and suggest Missouri businesses would be better off in Texas.
“Vetoing a tax cut is the same thing as raising your taxes, but there is a state where businesses flourish and jobs are created…Texas.” an advertisement featuring Gov. Perry states.
“If they see the continual taxation burden in Missouri, then it’s not just going to be Rick Perry that shows up here knocking on the doors businesses,” the ad claims.
“It’s a very bad thing to run ads to try to hurt the economy of another state so that you might gain something at the expense of another state,” Secretary Kander said.
Secy. Kander called Gov. Perry’s approach, ‘rude’. He also argued that so called “job poaching” does more harm than good.
“A company that would leave for a sales pitch like that is likely to get a better deal somewhere else and then leave Texas after that,” Secy. Kander said.
“When the St. Louis Cardinals were playing the Texas Rangers in the World Series, you guys didn’t mind competition,” Gov. Perry told the crowd. “I look at what we do as governors and legislatures not unlike that competition on an athletic field.”
But Secy. Kander said that Gov. Perry and Texas would be better off growing new business, rather than recruiting it from another state.
“There are a lot of businesses that started as start-ups in the state and now are very successful and are expanding and that can happen in Texas too,” Secy. Kander said.
Gov. Nixon criticized the state chamber for inviting someone who wants to take jobs from Missouri. The chamber said they asked Gov. Perry to speak because he shares their support of lower taxes.
