Texas Gov. Rick Perry launches ad campaign to poach jobs from New York, Connecticut

New York Post – by BETH DEFALCO
ALBANY — Them’s fightin’ words!
Texas Gov. Rick Perry is looking to lasso some East Coast business for his low-tax Lone Star State with a new $1 million ad campaign and trip next week to the Big Apple and Connecticut.
Perry has already begun airing ads on NY1 ahead of his June 16 visit.  
“Texas is calling. Your opportunity awaits,” Perry says at the end of the spot, which is filled with testimonials from Texas workers.
The ad buy, paid for by a public-private organization controlled by the governor, features two 30-second spots which are also slated to run on ESPN, CNN and other cable channels in the tristate area for a week, according to a statement from Perry’s office.
The visit follows previous excursions to California and Illinois, where Perry also urged business owners there to relocate to Texas, the second-most-populous state.
The commercials feature Texans “from all walks of life — from small-business owners and doctors, to top researchers and filmmakers,” Perry said.
While here, Republican Perry — who ran for president in 2012 and may do so again in 2016 — will meet with business leaders in the firearms, pharmaceutical and financial industries to tell them about the lower taxes and costs of living in Texas.
New York businesses already know everywhere else is cheaper. The state ranks dead last in sales-tax climate, according to the non-profit Tax Foundation, while Texas breaks the Top 10.
Texas has no personal income tax, while New York levies a personal income tax ranging from 4 percent to 8.8 percent.
“The main challenge for Texas will be figuring what to leave out of the commercial,” said E.J. McMahon, of the Manhattan Institute. “How will they condense all those advantages into 30-second spots?”
McMahon joked that Perry won’t need a very creative ad agency, but said that the greatest advantages come not from relocating individual businesses, but from businesses branching out and opening facilities in new states.
In February, Perry began running ads in California and Illinois, trying to lure people with promises of fewer regulations, lower taxes and less red tape.
His Web site compares the cost of doing business in Texas with those in New York, Connecticut, Illinois and California.
Some of New York’s newest regulations are already making it hard for businesses. Gun manufacturers in New York may be even more eager than other businesses to move following Gov. Cuomo’s tough new gun-control laws passed in January.
Dayton T. Brown Inc., which has tested weapons, armor and other equipment for the military, government agencies and businesses, for decades on Long Island, has said that at least one gun manufacturer won’t ship weapons to it out of fear of breaking the new law against assault weapons.
The New York law has exemptions for manufacturers but not weapon testers.
Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown quipped that Perry’s ads created “barely a fart,” saying they had no impact on the Golden State’s business economy.