Perry will ask for money for higher education, health care and border security

He critiques national Republicans for acting like Democrats
By W. Gardner Selby

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Friday, January 12, 2007

Republican Gov. Rick Perry, starting his second full term Tuesday, plans to ask lawmakers to spend more on higher education, health care and Texas-Mexico border security.

He's also amenable to a proposal triggering a state ban on abortions if the U.S. Supreme Court reverses its 1973 ruling making them legal in every state.

Reminded that proposals filed this week leave in place one exception, permitting an abortion to save a mother's life, Perry said he also favors exceptions for incest and rape, predicting that lawmakers will reach appropriate exemptions before sending him a measure.

In an interview in his Capitol office, Perry said he's hopeful that lawmakers will invest in border security, higher education and access to health care while agreeing to steps that would slow annual increases in home appraisals.

Perry also revisited his desire that lawmakers simplify the two-year state budget. He's advocated making it easier for governors to veto individual spending items without simultaneously wiping out entire agencies.

"Stay tuned," Perry said, saying he plans to expand on each topic soon, most likely in his inaugural address next week and his later State of the State address to legislators.

Perry said he opposes replacing the state's standardized test of public school students with end-of-course exams in high school, a change embraced by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano.

Yet Perry's spokesman, Robert Black, said later that Perry simply believes that end-of-course exams need to be phased in.

On the national front, the governor said he supports President Bush's plans to send more troops to Iraq.

Perry, who succeeded Bush as governor, said he just watched "United 93," the 2006 film based on events on the hijacked airplane that crashed in Pennsylvania on Sept. 11.

"I know we've got to win," Perry said. "I know we've got to keep them out of America."

Perry said he sees a gulf between Texas Republicans who held onto every statewide office in November and national Republicans, who lost control of the U.S. Senate and House (including two GOP-held seats won by Texas Democrats).

Asked whether Texas Republicans should draw a message from the elections, Perry said: "I am not sure that Republicans in Texas necessarily need to be painted in the same picture as the national election. I have said loudly and clearly that Republicans need to act like Republicans.

"That means you're going to be a fiscal and social conservative and strong on defense. . . . So for our friends in Washington, there might be some messages: Don't spend all the money. And don't go to Washington and tell people you're going to be a Republican, then act like a Democrat, or people may elect the real thing."

Though his comment rang like national campaign fodder, Perry insisted that he has not warmed to living in Washington.

He told The Associated Press that he continues to have no interest in his party's 2008 vice presidential nod, saying: "I am not interested in going to Washington, D.C., other than to the occasional meeting or to meet with a secretary or someone in the administration to help further Texas' business."

Perry, who turns 57 in March, also didn't rule out another run for governor in 2010, saying: "If I get close to getting my agenda fairly well taken care of over the course of the next four years, I may quietly ride off into the sunset. If I don't, I'm a young guy."

wgselby@statesman.com; 445-3644