California businessmen and women are coming to Texas to set up shop, apparently knowing all along that the Lone Star State is among the more business-friendly states in the Union.

And that is why Texas Gov. Rick Perry’s recent foray into California to recruit openly for business owners to relocate to Texas seems so gratuitous and, frankly, rather foolish.

http://www.texastribune.org/2013/03/11/polling-center-californias-conservative-migration/

Perry made the showy trip to California, where he chided that state over its difficult economic circumstance. California Gov. Jerry Brown called Perry’s visit “barely a fart.” Perry laughed off the snarky rejoinder.

The evidence, though, is quite clear that Texas is a good place to do business. We have no personal income tax. Our regulatory hurdles are less cumbersome than many other states.

Are we the perfect place to relocate? Hardly. Look at the school financing picture. The courts keep ruling our property tax-heavy public school funding system as being unconstitutional, and the Legislature hasn’t helped matters by cutting so deeply into public education funds to help balance the state budget. That’s hardly a magnet to attract young families with children to educate.

But as the Texas Tribune reports, Texas’s relatively good economic health has helped it attract new residents at a blistering pace, while other states have seen their population stagnate.

It makes me wonder aloud once again: Why did Perry feel the need to prance and preen so publicly when the state is selling itself?