Gov. Greg Abbott speaks attendees Wednesday at Preferred On-Site Fleet Services of Texas in Tyler. Abbott made the campaign stop to hold a business roundtable.

Gov. Greg Abbott says he wants to use half of the state’s $27 billion budget surplus to provide the largest property tax cut in the state’s history.

Abbott was in Tyler on Wednesday for a business roundtable at Preferred On-Site Fleet Services of Texas to discuss the economy of the city and state.

He said his Democratic opponent in the November election, Beto O’Rourke, was part of property tax increases three times when he served on the El Paso City Council.

“Texas and Texans do not need anybody even close to the governor’s office who has raised taxes,” Abbott said.

Abbott said he will continue to press for tax cuts and pointed out he championed a constitutional amendment in 2019 that banned a state income tax.

The governor also talked about economic development, whether from large companies or small businesses.

Abbott said Texas has been ranked as the No. 1 state to do business by CEOs since he came into office in 2014, and the state recently won a national award for being tops in economic development.

He added that the state has been tops in exports since he has been governor, and in May, Texas for the first time became home to more headquarters of Fortune 500 companies than any other state.

Additionally, Texas ranks as the best state in the nation to start a small business.

“When you add all this together, it leads to several profound effects,” he said. “Since I was last elected, Texas has added far more new jobs than any other state. More Texans are earning a paycheck today than ever before in the history of our state.”

Abbott also said Texas leads America in oil and gas production, which he said is an important issue for East Texas.

“That production is being threatened by (O’Rourke) because he embraces the radical leftist ideology of the green new deal that would eliminate the production of oil and gas,” he said. “We’ve seen other countries as well as states that have tried to not use fossil fuels anymore, and it has led to disasters.”

Abbott said O’Rourke’s plan would decrease oil and gas production, increase prices at the pump and would eliminate hundreds of thousands of good-paying jobs to the “hardworking men and women working in the oil and gas fields in Texas.”

“I’m running for re-election to keep those hard working jobs alive and well,” he said.