Bill Hammond is the chief strategist for the Texas Smart-On-Crime Coalition. He is a former CEO of the Texas Association of Business, and a former state representative.
Let’s make sure our lawmakers reach across the aisle and show voters bipartisanship isn’t dead this session. In doing so, we’d make great strides to reform our broken criminal justice system, strengthen our communities, reduce taxpayer costs and keep Texas safe.
Smart justice reforms make our communities safer. For this reason, calling bail reform a “slap in the face to victims and survivors” could not be further from the truth. Texans deserve a system of pretrial justice that is not based on whether a defendant can afford to pay bail.
Despite our free-enterprise culture, there are pockets of anti-competitive behavior where government regulation and edict rule the day, harming consumers with a 19th century regulatory model. One such industry that fits that description is title insurance.
No matter what company they choose, homeowners and businesses seeking to protect their investment in the purchase of land from a faulty title are forced to accept coverages and prices mandated by the Texas Department of Insurance — which often leads to some of the highest title insurance rates in the nation.
You may not remember the dark days of Texas' workers’ compensation system some three decades ago. But I can assure you, having lived it, Texas doesn’t want to go back there.
Texas' patchwork of onerous regulations for companies like Uber and Lyft is bad for business and limiting access to much-needed transportation alternatives. It's time for a statewide fix.
Only when Texans succeed will business be able to succeed. And now, thanks to plunging oil prices, we'll have to work hard to ensure that initiatives that will benefit all Texans are funded.
