Golly batman, is it possible that a standard issue politican does not do anything for business? Anyone that looks at Texas for about 2 minutes sees companies like AT&T, vErizon, Nokia, RIM, Texas Instruments and puts 2+2 togeather to see CELL PHONES and wireless products, what in the world did Rick Perry do to create that? Next the introduction of FRACKING for oil - again nothing from the government created that technical breakthrough. Yet those two industries must be worth 100 million a year in TX tax revenues...forget trying to figure out how many jobs. You're missing the forest for the trees. Yes Perry had little or nothing to do with creating them, but you left out the most important thing. He and the rest of the executive branch in Texas didn't interfere in their business with unnecessary and counterproductive regulations.
Thanks for you good thoughts - one reason why he had so little bad done - is we only meet in Austin every two years - that means the folks that get elected have to go home and work under the laws they pass - so they don't pass many laws.
The legislatures spend the vast majority of the time figuring out where the money goes and fine tuning. They also spend time KILLING ideas like the TransTexas Corridor a pet project of "not conservtive" Rick Perry. This huge land grab would have destroyed hundreds of farms, ranches and small businesses all in the name of giving Texans a toll road.