When he's not busy keynoting major industry events and extolling the virtues of his state, Texas Governor Rick Perry is a swell guy. Further incentivizing the aforementioned game industry types, Mr. Perry just recently signed into law a bill that will extend the 2007 initiatives, according to the San Marcos Daily Record.
House Bill 873 looks to increase state grants available to a variety of digital mediums, including games, film and other commercial prospects. The state is hoping the bill will encourage game development companies and film studios (among others) to bring their work to Texas, which Perry backed up by saying, "We are strengthening our state's investment in a vital industry that not only shows off our state to the rest of the world, but also draws investment and creates jobs for Texans." Considering the poor economy and tightening budgets, we're fairly certain this bill will work as intended.
[Via GamePolitics]
Reader Comments (64)
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 4:07PM (Unverified) said
So if it happened, would that make buying games from Texas the equivalent of importing?
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 4:19PM (Unverified) said
He didn't put "secession on the table" he approved a bill declaring sovereignty, something many other states have done.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 4:27PM (Unverified) said
wow, you should seriously work on your grammar and spelling skills before you try to make a case that you're better than anyone else.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 4:36PM User Formerly Known as Dave said
Yes, we do know our shit compared to Californians. Thank you.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 4:39PM (Unverified) said
Cali has the highest douchebag - normal person ratio.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 4:48PM (Unverified) said
Epic Californian fail. Delicious.
East Coast FTW.
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East Coast FTW.
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 4:54PM (Unverified) said
Wow... this is disappointing. Not the Texas bill, but the comments.
To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant. (Alcott)
Reply
To be ignorant of one's ignorance is the malady of the ignorant. (Alcott)
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 5:14PM (Unverified) said
Not that I approve of the death penalty, but you ought to see how many people Rick Perry's sent to the grave via lethal injection before talking about who's going to terminate who.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 8:09PM User Formerly Known as Dave said
Hey, I love video games, too--but you really need to pick up a book, kid.
Reply
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 5:12PM nzero said
@MariusElijah (Only on PlayStation 3)
You clearly don't know anything about economics if your citing California's economy. Sure California's economy might not be fairing well but so is the rest of the United States. Also just to inform you California is one of the top economies in the World, if it was its' own country than California would be marked tenth worldwide but that number might be different now since that was in 2007 but Texas doesn't even come close to that lol. I think Texas was marked at 15 still good but not as good as California lol
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You clearly don't know anything about economics if your citing California's economy. Sure California's economy might not be fairing well but so is the rest of the United States. Also just to inform you California is one of the top economies in the World, if it was its' own country than California would be marked tenth worldwide but that number might be different now since that was in 2007 but Texas doesn't even come close to that lol. I think Texas was marked at 15 still good but not as good as California lol
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 5:16PM (Unverified) said
Yeah, and the Titanic was one of the top ships in the world, but it still sunk. If your state's on the verge of bankruptcy, STFU.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 5:41PM (Unverified) said
As long as you guys can manage to legalize weed, more power to ya.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 7:30PM LaughingTarget said
California used to be called the 5th largest economy in the world. It's slipped to the 10th. The key advantage of this is California's population, based on a per-capita calculation, California is somewhere in the middle of the pack of US states. It may produce a lot, but only because it's a big state, not because there's something special about doing business in California. Cali used to have a good business environment, but through major tax increases to cover all the social services the state wants to offer, it is no longer considered a business friendly environment and is losing businesses. California has gone from a tax donor state (a state that pays more Federal taxes than recieves in benefits) to a tax recipient state over this timeframe as well as has a 10.1% unemployment rate.
Texas, on the other hand, has had an economy that has grown faster than California's and during this economic "crisis", seems to be weathering quite well. Texas is still a tax donor state and has a low unemployment rate of 6.7%.
Of course Texas is angry. States like California, which burden themselves and by proxy, the nation, with stupid laws, regulations, taxes and "services", are making it hard for Texas to function. Since TX isn't getting hammered like everyone else, they'll be bound to foot a greater and greater percentage of the budget, which predominantly goes to states that are not called Texas but are called New York or California.
California was a great place, 30 years ago. Today it's a huge mess and a prime example of what not to do on a national level but what America is going to do anyway.
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Texas, on the other hand, has had an economy that has grown faster than California's and during this economic "crisis", seems to be weathering quite well. Texas is still a tax donor state and has a low unemployment rate of 6.7%.
Of course Texas is angry. States like California, which burden themselves and by proxy, the nation, with stupid laws, regulations, taxes and "services", are making it hard for Texas to function. Since TX isn't getting hammered like everyone else, they'll be bound to foot a greater and greater percentage of the budget, which predominantly goes to states that are not called Texas but are called New York or California.
California was a great place, 30 years ago. Today it's a huge mess and a prime example of what not to do on a national level but what America is going to do anyway.
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 5:17PM (Unverified) said
I love it, people come in here thinking they're better than Texans yet they themselves post barbaric comments. Oh the irony...
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Posted: Apr 26th 2009 12:42AM (Unverified) said
There seems to always be a lot of pointless competition. Hell, where taught in school to hate the other rival schools and everyone in them simply because they where zoned for that school.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 5:50PM nzero said
@MariusElijah (Only on PlayStation 3) & Matt_M
Dude you are so ignorant you argue with no facts ok here is the deal. The reason I listed 2007 for California's position because it was the last time the CIA did a listing of its position of it globally if California was its onwn nation. I got that from here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California
The most current position I could find of California which is not supported by any govt. agency but from the private sector was from here
http://www.theglobalguru.com/article.php?id=171&offer=GURU003
California's economy is still larger than Texas. Texas' economy is basically half of that of California which means Texas GDP usually is half of what California's is. If you don't know what GDP is its basically the Gross Domestic Product of that economy. Now GDP doesn't measure the economic strength of a market as well as GSP (GRP) which determines the actuial gross of that market. Now let me just get it through your head. Sure the economic market of California may be weak but it still stronger than Texas now that doesn't mean Texas economy is weak it just means that California's is better ok.
Reply
Dude you are so ignorant you argue with no facts ok here is the deal. The reason I listed 2007 for California's position because it was the last time the CIA did a listing of its position of it globally if California was its onwn nation. I got that from here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_California
The most current position I could find of California which is not supported by any govt. agency but from the private sector was from here
http://www.theglobalguru.com/article.php?id=171&offer=GURU003
California's economy is still larger than Texas. Texas' economy is basically half of that of California which means Texas GDP usually is half of what California's is. If you don't know what GDP is its basically the Gross Domestic Product of that economy. Now GDP doesn't measure the economic strength of a market as well as GSP (GRP) which determines the actuial gross of that market. Now let me just get it through your head. Sure the economic market of California may be weak but it still stronger than Texas now that doesn't mean Texas economy is weak it just means that California's is better ok.
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 6:10PM nzero said
@Mark C yeah I know theirs a reply function just the people I want to reply to don't have it enabled lol o and Zertoss yeah this shit got carried away I mean I just posted something stupid so someone else can post something stupid and we could all have a bid laugh but I guess some people took it a bit to seriously but it is my fault all this started jajajajajajaja sorry lol
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 6:15PM Zertoss said
"the people I want to reply to don't have it enabled lol"
...
You click the reply button under the first post, in this case, YOUR post. So to reply to this comment, you click the reply button right there under the post you made that this comment is in response to.
Simple, no?
Reply
...
You click the reply button under the first post, in this case, YOUR post. So to reply to this comment, you click the reply button right there under the post you made that this comment is in response to.
Simple, no?
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 6:47PM shibathedog said
Hell no don't let them go, That would be a huge sign of weakness for the US. Other states might then decide to do it until the whole country falls apart as well.
what we should do is let them sit there until they can't take it any longer and try to do it by force, then turn texas into a crater, a barren wasteland uninhabitable by human beings due to radiation. This would be pretty tough to pass through and might solve part of the immigration problem as well. Lets see any other states try this crap after that goes down.
PLEASE don't take this comment seriously.
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what we should do is let them sit there until they can't take it any longer and try to do it by force, then turn texas into a crater, a barren wasteland uninhabitable by human beings due to radiation. This would be pretty tough to pass through and might solve part of the immigration problem as well. Lets see any other states try this crap after that goes down.
PLEASE don't take this comment seriously.
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 7:13PM LaughingTarget said
Or, stop trying to treat the United States as a single nation and start treating it like states that, ya know, united together and not like convenient administrative districts. Maybe trying to tell 320 million people to live and do the same thing is stupid and it's a good idea to have 50 different states, each with a different environment, so people can pick a place to live that suits their needs and wants. If it wasn't for chumps along the two coasts trying to tell the middle how to live their lives, we wouldn't have these problems. Massachusetts can have its social security and universal health care and Texas can do what it wants. Even better, when one of them fails, it doesn't infect everyone else.
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Posted: Apr 25th 2009 7:28PM (Unverified) said
Here is a Governor that is actually promoting and even SUPPORTING the game industry and most of the posts here are actually attacking him!
Contrast this Texas Gov to those attempts to tax or regulate content in the games from Rep. Robert Billiot in Louisiana,to the Seirra Club in New Mexico, to Steve Samuelson in Pennsylvania, to Hillary Clinton's taxing campaign, to those Bureaucrats in the UK that want to turn games into eco-edu-tainment... I'd think you people would be happy...
Did I miss something?
Reply
Contrast this Texas Gov to those attempts to tax or regulate content in the games from Rep. Robert Billiot in Louisiana,to the Seirra Club in New Mexico, to Steve Samuelson in Pennsylvania, to Hillary Clinton's taxing campaign, to those Bureaucrats in the UK that want to turn games into eco-edu-tainment... I'd think you people would be happy...
Did I miss something?
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 7:58PM (Unverified) said
No.
90% of America has just lost their fucking minds, and seem to think Bush is still in the White House.
That's about it....
Reply
90% of America has just lost their fucking minds, and seem to think Bush is still in the White House.
That's about it....
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 7:56PM (Unverified) said
Um, that link is to HB 0873 in legislative session 79R. You'll be wanting 81R.
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=HB0873
79R HB 0873 DOES relate to gaming in that it prevents homeowner's associations from limiting which flags can be flown on your property. So if you wanted to put a big triangular flag with a peace sign outside your house, the annoying Italian plumbers next door can't make you take it down.
Reply
http://www.legis.state.tx.us/BillLookup/history.aspx?LegSess=81R&Bill=HB0873
79R HB 0873 DOES relate to gaming in that it prevents homeowner's associations from limiting which flags can be flown on your property. So if you wanted to put a big triangular flag with a peace sign outside your house, the annoying Italian plumbers next door can't make you take it down.
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 8:03PM (Unverified) said
Let's see... He's a Republican "space cadet" Governor.
And let's see - you're just a retarded liberal on a website about video games, with a bad picture, to match...
WINNER = RICK PERRY!
Reply
And let's see - you're just a retarded liberal on a website about video games, with a bad picture, to match...
WINNER = RICK PERRY!
Posted: Apr 25th 2009 9:36PM (Unverified) said
While you are at it, could you not use "Tax-raising, eco-worshipping, Freedom-hating Socialist " in a derogatory manner either?
People have given both terms a bad rep.
Reply
People have given both terms a bad rep.
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