Our View: Texas is nothin' to brag about

Most people find the Texas drawl pleasant, those soft vowels and that aw-shucks attitude. It's what some Texans say that we find objectionable.

Gov. Rick Perry is on the radio doing what Texans do best: bragging about Texas. The governor's pleasant accent failed to sell the nation on his presidential ambitions, so we doubt this pitch to California business people will be any more successful:

"Building a business is tough," the Republican governor says. "But I hear building a business in California is next to impossible. This is Texas Gov. Rick Perry, and I have a message for California businesses: Come check out Texas."

Yes, let's check out Texas.

Texas ranks dead last in the percentage of its population with high school diplomas.

Texas is last in mental health expenditures and workers compensation coverage. Safety net? Not so much.

Texas ranks first in the number of executions, first in the number of uninsured residents, first in the amount of carbon dioxide spewed into the air and first in the amount of toxic chemicals released into the water. Draw your own conclusions about a state atop those lists.

Then realize that no one chooses Texas for the weather — drought, humidity, ice storms, tornadoes and hurricanes.

Texas does hold some attraction — how else to explain companies such as Hilmar Cheese choosing to locate at least some of their operations there? But most companies base such moves on business calculations — often having to do with more lenient regulations, more lax environmental standards and sweetheart tax deals.

Why run such an ad in California? Because with our access to the Pacific Rim, great weather, diversity and 36 million customers, er, residents, we are creating businesses all the time.

If we invest in education and infrastructure and protect our environment, our state will continue to create companies such as Apple, Google, E.&J. Gallo, Oracle, 5.11 Tactical, Yelp, Twitter, Save Mart, Sun Microsystems, Genentech, Tesla, Cisco, Intel, Qualcomm ... well, the list goes on, but we'll stop there.

No one, however, can stop Gov. Jerry Brown. Visiting a UPS distribution center Tuesday to celebrate a fleet of electric vehicles, he admonished reporters: "It's not a serious story, guys. It's not a burp. It's barely a fart."

Thanks for the aural, governor.

But instead of disparaging Perry for his gassy comments, we urge Brown to work harder to create a friendlier place to start and grow companies without growing red tape. All the rest — the great weather, beautiful beaches, mountain vistas, fine wines, great foods — we've already got.

And then there's Texas. It can be nice, too ... sometimes. But we'll let the late Molly Ivins explain her native state: "It's a low-tax, low-service state — so shoot us. The only depressing part is that, unlike Mississippi, we can afford to do better. We just don't."