November 21, 2019

Fiscal Notes: Occupational Licensing in Texas

(AUSTIN) — In the November edition of Fiscal Notes, released recently, the Comptroller’s office looks at occupational licensing in Texas. Despite the state’s reputation for business friendliness, some of Texas’ licensing requirements have been seen as unnecessarily burdensome, leading the Legislature to abolish many license types and ease requirements for others.

“Some of the most responsible positions in our society require a license — and that’s as it should be. No one with a child in the hospital wants to wonder whether the doctors know what they are doing,” Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar said. “But the requirements for some relatively low-risk occupations can be quite stiff, including months of training and hundreds of dollars in fees — hurdles that effectively exclude many workers.”

This issue also takes a look at the expanding world of government transparency — the move toward offering free access, via the internet, to federal, state and local government data that can be highly valuable both to private businesses and communities. Companies are mining such data for key insights into consumer behavior, while local governments use the data to develop strategies for economic development, fine-tune regulatory systems and further many other public purposes.

Fiscal Notes is available online and can be received by subscribing via the Comptroller’s website.

Fiscal Notes furthers the Comptroller’s constitutional responsibility to monitor the state’s economy and estimate state government revenues. It has been published since 1975, featuring in-depth analysis concerning state finances and original research by subject-matter experts in the Comptroller’s office.