SOUTHEAST TEXAS RECORD

With the new year, Texas gets a new governor. We'll miss having Rick Perry at the helm, but are confident Greg Abbott will steer our ship of state with equally steady hands.

In their wisdom, Texas voters chose the candidate who promised to continue the reform-minded, business-friendly policies that are Perry's legacy.

“Texas small businesses are the essential gears of our economic engine. They employ millions of Texans,” Perry said in 2009 as he signed a small-business tax cut.

During his tenure as our longest-serving governor, Perry supported a loser-pays system and predicted that the one enacted in 2011 would “protect Texas jobs and stimulate economic opportunity by relieving Texans and employers of the costs and burdens created by frivolous and drawn-out lawsuits.”

Perry also stood up for state sovereignty, challenging the frequent overreach of federal bureaucrats, the ones in the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Health and Human Services being the most arbitrary and audacious.

“I will not be party to socializing health care or bankrupting my state in direct contradiction to our Constitution and our founding principles of limited government,” Perry asserted in a 2012 letter to then-HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

Here's how Abbott summed up the accomplishments of his predecessor and ally:

“As governor, Rick Perry has fought for lower taxes, less regulation, and more job creation – all of which have helped Texas claim the best business climate in the nation. Along the way, Governor Perry has kept Washington in check, working to block an intrusive federal government from meddling in our personal lives and preventing the heavy hand of government from stifling small businesses in Texas.”

Governor-Elect Abbott promises to perpetuate Perry's positive policies.

“Texas will continue to be a pro-business state because of legislative reforms,” he affirmed recently at a meeting with Texas congressional leaders from the Greater Houston area. “Texas will remain the best state in the United States with your cooperation.”

He deserves to get that cooperation.