Governor Rick Perry on a business hunting campaign set his sites on the State of California on Monday. He was bringing the gospel of lower taxes and fewer regulations to the tax challenged state. In an interview with the San Jose Mercury News, the Governor predicted that Texas was on the path to become the “next silicon valley”.
Perry was armed with Texan wit and bravado declaring;
“Building a business is tough,” Perry says in the ad, which also was paid for by TexasOne. “But I hear building a business in California is next to impossible.”
Not all were convinced about the foregone conclusion of success. One business leader stated that start-ups had more important things on their mind than hanging out in Texas and walking, not flying, to SXSW;
Kim Polese, chairwoman of financial services company ClearStreet Inc., and former chief executive of software company SpikeSource, said she is glad Perry is spotlighting the issue of California’s competitiveness and the need for changes to its regulations.
“But the startup world is thriving here in the valley,” she said, adding that startups are more concerned with issues such as crowd funding and a ready workforce than taxes and regulations.
While crowdfunding is on the minds of many these days, at Crowdfund insider are not certain that crowdfunding is sufficient enough to stun start-ups against the challenges of high taxes and growing government oversight. But maybe the weather plays a greater role as another erstwhile political pundit chimed in;
“A lot of these Texans, they come here, they don’t go back,” he told reporters. “Who would want to spend their summers in 110-degree heat inside some kind of a fossil-fueled air conditioner? Not a smart way to go.” Governor Jerry Brown
Never a dull moment in California.