While some occupational licenses serve a legitimate role, many seem more designed to lock-out upstarts and create barriers for competitors seeking to enter the marketplace. Taxpayer advocate and State Rep. Bill Callegari wants to fix that; he’s on a mission to reduce what has become one of the most burdensome areas of government.
While Texas prides itself on being a low-regulation state, that’s too often just in comparison to other states—not a great metric for long-term success.
“State regulation of our jobs and businesses means more government control over our economy and everyday lives … While I do not oppose all government regulation, my legislation aims to limit, and potentially roll-back, the regulatory reach of the State of Texas.”
Mr. Callegari’s legislative package—HB 86 and HB 87—both limits new licensing and provides a way to begin scaling back those which are “burdensome and unnecessary.”
For existing licenses and regulation, Callegari would have the Sunset Advisory Commission “evaluate whether an existing occupational regulation works to protect the public from a clear and recognizable harm to public health or safety.”
Those that don’t, should be abolished.
“When you think about it, we have all these governmental processes for creating more regulations and licensing programs, but we have very few mechanisms for formally evaluating whether they’re still needed,” said Representative Callegari.
Both of these measures are priorities for Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, and will be included in the 2013 Fiscal Responsibility Index.
