Occupational Licensing & Overcriminalization

Testimony before the House Government Reform Committee

The overcriminalization of occupational licensing is limiting job growth and competition while unfairly excluding some Texans from the workforce. Texas regulates too many occupations, applies excessive criminal penalties to violations of licensing rules, and too often prevents otherwise qualified individuals from obtaining licenses because of a minor and sometimes decades-old conviction. This testimony offers solutions that can put more Texans to work and, by increasing competition, bring greater choice and value to consumers.

The Other Franchise Tax

Municipal Franchise Fees Add Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to Consumers' Bill Each Year

Consumers have greatly benefitted from recent efforts to reduce telecommunications taxes. But this testimony shows that the municipal franchise tax on video, voice, electricity, and natural gas services still takes hundreds of millions of dollars a year out of consumers' pockets.

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National Health Care Costs Government and Patients To this point, we have been successful in avoiding the pitfalls of nationalized health care. But putting more of our private health care consumers into government programs and granting the government more financial control over the health care market gets us closer to the Canadian model that even its architect says is in “crisis.”

Unrealistic Energy Policies Harm Consumers When misguided environmental theory dictates energy policy, the result is high prices, unreliability, and inadequate supply. It is time to reverse course.

Texas-Sized Transparency While Texas taxpayers are busy earning a living, taking care of their families, and paying their taxes, they deserve to know that their tax dollars are being used judiciously by the state and local governments that are spending them.

More Health Care Requires More Choices Giving consumers more choices would improve access to health care by providing individuals with more choices that would be affordable, regardless of insurance status.

The Importance of Business Friendliness A state (or a city or a county or a country) that wants to be loved, economically speaking, must make itself lovable, by implementation of business policies that business loves.

A Better Homeowners’ Insurance Market Awaits For most of the last 20 years, Texas regulators have battled homeowners’ insurers, attempting to block “excessive” rates. The losers in these battles have been consumers, who have been harmed by the instability injected into the market by over-regulation.

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