Remarks before Texas Farm Bureau

By Bill White
July 8, 2010

So this doctor tends to the farmer whose knee swells after being kicked by his horse. He tells the
farmer that there’s no bone damage, just a little tear, and the farmer should keep off it for a month
and then take it easy. But the doctor says: “Look, this is the third time I’ve been here in eight years
because that same horse kicked you bad. Each time you told me you were going to get a new horse.
What happened?” The farmer replies: “After each kicking it was like he knew I was going to trade him
in. He was real nice and looked at me with those eyes. Then I got used to passing behind his
hindquarters, and a couple of years later he would kick me hard again.” The doctor says: “Friend, one
kicking is an accident but three is a pattern. Take that that horse to market and see if you have an
alternative.”

Members of the Farm Bureau, you have do have an alternative. I’m Bill White. I will do what is right for
Texas.

During the last year and a half I have met you and your members throughout this state. I have met
farmers from big farms and small, during times of drought and heavy rains, and I’ve talked to you in
meetings and phone calls. You grow different crops and have a variety of views. But I have found that
most Bureau members share some common beliefs.

First, you believe fiercely in property rights, as do I. You understand that the Trans-Texas Corridor was
a rotten deal, pushed on this state from the top down, with arm-twisting. You were betrayed by veto
of eminent domain reforms. I commit to support your agenda on property rights. This includes eminent
domain reforms that compensate for lost access.

Second, you believe strongly that Texas needs real leadership on water rights. We need a governor
who respects local decision-making and the rule of law on water rights. You understand that as Texas
grows, there could be strong economic incentives for inter-basin water transfers or the depletion of our
aquifers. A governor who would sell highways to the highest bidder may compromise our water rights. I
commit to protect and preserve historical rights, and respect local decision-making concerning this
state’s water resources.

Third, you are concerned with excessive regulation, which makes it harder to turn a profit on your
business. I am a businessman and have met payrolls. I understand that farmers sell at prices set by
others and cannot pass on higher costs to consumers. I commit to fight and fight effectively against
excessive regulation so we can preserve economically viable ownership for agricultural lands.

Fourth, you know we need to rebuild the Texas Department of Transportation. Before Rick Perry,
Democratic and Republican governors alike supported long-term transportation development, resulting
in farm-to-market roads and highways critical to getting goods to market. The obsession with the
Trans-Texas Corridor killed TxDOT’s long-term planning. Now it relies on excessive amounts of
borrowing to be repaid by massive cuts in the maintenance of existing roads. I commit to you to bring
state’s leadership, include the civic and business leadership, together to develop a long-term plan for
our state’s transportation needs.
Fifth, Farm Bureau members understand the importance of public education to our future. Local school
boards have been telling you about unfunded mandates from Austin and the centralization of power
and control by Austin over local education in the last ten years. Your local schools have lost control of
their calendar and the curriculum and so much more. Texas mandates have undermined progress and
technical and career education. One size fits all funding formulas have shortchanged many rural
schools. At one time Rick Perry even tried to make decisions that should be made by families, not the
governor, on whether their daughters should be injected with a particular drug. I commit to you that I
will return more local control to local school districts. As a former mayor I know that local government,
including school boards, knows best the needs of our communities.

These five commitments reflect my life’s experience and core values. I will keep these commitments
to you when elected governor regardless of your support for me. I will have an open door to Farm
Bureau leadership. I will call you and ask for your advice, before decisions are made that affect your
members.

My Texas values are rooted deeply in the soil of our state. My family farmed and ranched for
generations. One side of my family farmed in Navarro County beginning 160 years ago. Another started
farming and ranching in Caldwell County over 150 years ago. My father’s family lived off the land they
farmed and my father’s chores included getting up early in the morning to hunt for food.

I understand deeply that good stewardship of our natural world depends on those whose livelihood
depends on the health of that land. All Texans depend on healthy agricultural economy...well at least
those who eat food and wear fiber. I will be your voice—an effective voice—to remind all Texans of
that fact.

My days in building businesses taught me the value of a dollar. I abhor waste. For years before
becoming mayor I made my living building oil and gas service companies. I know what it means to
tighten the belt when revenues go down. I understand that you build up cash in the balance sheet
when times are good to avoid excessive debt in hard times.

I brought these skills to government as Houston’s mayor. During my first five years as mayor, we both
cut the property tax rates and built up cash surpluses. This allowed us to weather the storm of
Hurricane Ike, the third largest disaster in American history by property damage, which tore right
through the middle of my city. This financial discipline allowed the city to adopt a budget for the fiscal
year that began last week, without raising property taxes or cutting essential personnel and services
such as our police or fire fighters or those who collect the garbage or repair our infrastructure.

I authored a city charter amendment—the only of its kind in Texas—that limited the expected increase
in annual property tax collections unless there was a vote by the people.

As result of providing better services with fiscal discipline, I was re-elected overwhelmingly with
margins of 86% and 91%. Those included margins of over 80% in the most conservative Republican
precincts in our city.

Now I understand that Rick Perry will sacrifice the interests of Texas and the truth to remain in office.
You yourself have experienced this kind of treatment by Rick Perry. His spokesperson, Mark Miner, said
that that the Farm Bureau endorsement was a political payback to Senator Hutchison because the
Bureau operates an insurance business and she had voted for a bailout of the insurance industry. Please
listen carefully to Governor Perry’s speech and be watching to see whether he looks you in the eye, as
a Texan, and apologizes, directly, for accusing you of corrupt motives.

Of course Perry will also falsely attack me to prolong his time on the public payroll and the extravagant
lifestyle paid for by taxpayers and campaign contributors. Why just last week Rick Perry, through that
same Mr. Miner, attacked me for being on the board of a great Texas business, employing over 10,000
people, which provides services including fracturing of underground natural gas formations. They said
this business was “shady” and “under investigation by Congress.” But without fracturing of gas
formations, there would be little onshore domestic production of natural gas in Texas. Without
fracturing, our utility bills would skyrocket, our employment would drop, and the value of mineral
interests would fall to almost nothing. How can you explain a Texas Governor attacking a Texas
business based on an industry-wide investigation by California Congressman Henry Waxman? Simple:
Rick Perry cares more about himself and his own re-election than he does the truth or the Texans he
represents.

Rick Perry claims that somehow I and my bipartisan colleagues on City Council left the finances of the
City of Houston in shambles, even though I doubled the cash on the balance sheet as mayor, so we’d
have reserves for tough times. The City of Houston is one of the only big cities in the United States,
which, during a recession, has balanced its budget without raising taxes or cutting essential services.
Now, this kind of criticism may seem a little strange from a Governor who failed to plan ahead and now
is cutting essential services, including amounts needed by our community colleges. That is eating our
seed corn. Why would a Governor who took the third largest amount of stimulus funds from the federal
government and used them to pay operating expenses criticize the finances of a city that did not?
Simple: Rick Perry is more interested in himself and his re-election than the truth about state’s largest
city.

I commit to you that I will conduct the business of state government in a non-partisan fashion. My
volunteers, my staff and my donors reflect my bi-partisan approach to government. This is how I
conducted all business as mayor. This is what we need in Austin now. Rick Perry will not make that
commitment. To do so would require dismantling his re-election machine.

I commit to you to work hard every week, usually seven days a week, in service to the people of this
state. I understand that in tough times we will be asking many state employees to do more with less. I
understand the example of hard work that must be set by our state’s chief executive. It is wrong to
accept a full time salary for part-time work.

Rick Perry scheduled about seven hours a week for state business during the first five months of this
year. When asked to respond to this, let me quote you what Part-Time Perry said: “If they've made
anybody that can out work me yet, please introduce me to him.” Seven hours of scheduled state
business per week.

Well, Governor, I introduce you to every single member of the Farm Bureau, over 440,000 Texans.

Here is my point: the governor of this state does not own this state. If a governor starts acting like he
is the owner and not the hired hand, he has been governor too long. If a governor ever starts acting
like his commitment to any citizen or group of citizens depends on their commitment to him, he has
been governor too long. If a governor ever acts like he owns positions on state boards and commissions,
and appointees are expected to serve his personal re-election agenda, then surely it is time to find a
new governor. We need a governor who understands that he should serve as a humble servant rather
than a demanding master.

I understand the frustration of many in the Farm Bureau with policies in Washington. I am as concerned
as you are with increasing federal debt. Once when I served in high office in this country I cut the
budget of a cabinet department to reduce the deficit. I oppose policies to artificially raise energy
prices. I spoke against cap-and-trade legislation in speeches quite strongly, even when the Presidential
candidates of both political parties made cap-and-trade legislation part of their platforms.

But I do not come before you running for president, or to give running commentary on policies I cannot
control. I’m asking for your endorsement as a governor who will put Texas first, above party or national
ambition.

Just count the times that Rick Perry refers to President Obama in his speech to you today. Will it be
five times or ten times or twenty times? If you include the words Washington and federal government
in that count, surely it will be more than twenty. Please keep count.

Perhaps he thinks you have no views on these matters, and he is doing more than preaching to the
choir. Perhaps he thinks that those in Congress are reading his every utterance, and will somehow
comply. Sometimes he thinks that he is fighting for Texas when he is really just talking into a
microphone. After a while, it is natural for some career politicians to confuse a speech with a solution,
or rhetoric with a result.

But more likely when he talks to you about what President Obama does, he hopes you may forget what
he did when he backed out of the commitment to this Bureau and vetoed eminent domain legislation.

When he rails again against Washington, he is hoping you forget that he promised that property taxes
would be lowered when Texans actually saw their property taxes go up.

When he decries spending in Washington he hopes that you will forget that state spending while he has
been governor has increased by 79 percent, and the state has become far more dependent on federal
revenue.

When he attacks national leadership, he hopes you will forget his own attacks on the Farm Bureau
itself just months ago.

So here is the simple truth. When he refers to the policies of those in Washington, remember that we
are electing a governor and not a protester. If you respect state’s rights, then we need a governor
more interested in serving his constituents than in using them as props for a national campaign.

While you are counting on one hand the number of times he refers to the President or Washington,
please count on your other hand the number of times that he can tell you that he picked up the phone
personally or went to Washington and personally spoke on your behalf to the Secretary of Agriculture
since the last election. Count the number of times when he tells you when he personally and
effectively intervened at your request to actually change a decision in Washington on drought relief or
any of the wide variety of federal programs, or visited with Sen. Hutchison and others to strengthen
federal programs that have been advocated by Farm Bureau members for decades.
I understand there may be those who doubt I can win. When I first ran for mayor, I heard all that. By
July before the first election, I was in fourth place and had barely broken into double digits in the
polls. Even my supporters had doubts about how an Anglo, fiscally conservative, Democratic
businessman could win, especially when I was a new face in politics.

In fact, one political guru even criticized my face itself: he told me my ears were too big for TV.

I am asking for your vote and will work to earn it.

Watch our campaign over the next six weeks, as our momentum continues to build. Listen to your
members and tell them what you heard today. You know they are ready for a new governor who is in it
for Texas, not just himself.

You can sit on the sidelines or decide to make a difference. Making a difference: that is called
leadership. This state needs the Farm Bureau’s leadership now.

If many of you took the easy way out, you would have sold the farm. If you were afraid of all risk, you
would not be in a business that depends on the weather. You are used to thinking about the long run,
and doing the right thing for the right reason. That is all I am asking for.

Together we can build a Texas with more opportunity. It is time that Texas started planting and quit
living off past harvests on education and transportation, for the future of Texas.