Vice President of Research Director, Center for Economic Freedom
Bill Peacock is the vice president of research and director of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Economic Freedom. He has been with the Foundation since February 2005.
Bill has extensive experience in Texas government and policy on a variety of issues, including economic and regulatory policy, natural resources, public finance and public education. His work has focused on identifying and reducing the harmful effects of regulations on the economy, businesses and consumers.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Bill served as the Deputy Commissioner for Coastal Resources for Commissioner Jerry Patterson at the Texas General Land Office. Before he worked at the GLO, Bill was a legislative and media consultant. He has also served as the Deputy Assistant Commissioner for Intergovernmental Affairs for then-Commissioner Rick Perry at the Texas Department of Agriculture and as a legislative aide to then-State Rep. John Culberson.
Bill began his career in state policy in 1989 in the Texas Senate as the analyst for public education and school finance for the Senate Education Committee.
Bill has a B.A. in History from the University of Northern Colorado and a M.B.A. with an emphasis in public finance from the University of Houston.
He lives with his wife, Kelly, and son, William, in Austin, TX.
Making Electricity More Expensive: Texas’ Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Programs
August 24, 2010
What Texans want is more, less expensive electricity, not less, more expensive electricity. If Texas wants to reduce energy costs and save money for Texas consumers, it needs to go back to the drawing board and make significant changes to the energy efficiency program and eliminate the Renewable Portfolio Standard.
The concept of the consumer-driven economy is everywhere. We are told a consumer-driven recovery is going to turn our economy around. Consumer-driven health care was supposed to drive down medical costs. Yet the real power of consumers is generally ignored by those proposing government solutions to problems.
A Tale of Two Markets: Telecommunications and Electricity
May 25, 2010
A Sunset Report on the Texas Public Utility Commission
Texas has the most competitive electricity market in the world. Its telecommunications market is equally successful. While the details of the transitions to competition for these two markets differ, the results are remarkably similar—exceptional increases in consumer choice and decreases in consumer prices.
A Sunset Report on the Texas Department of Insurance and the Office of Public Insurance Counsel
This report focuses on identifying the underlying statutory provisions that, if amended or repealed, would eliminate many of the conflicts in homeowners’ insurance law. The report's recommendations are designed to do this and, ultimately, to bring a consumer-friendly regulatory system to the Texas homeowners’ insurance marketplace.
Government regulations are, by their very nature, designed to overrule the decisions and valuations freely made by consumers in the marketplace because a few government officials—and special interest groups—don’t like the outcome that consumers prefer. New regulations then impose the preferences of regulators on consumers—usually in the name of consumer protection.
Prices, Reliability, and Consumer Choice in the Texas Electricity Market
January 22, 2010
Texas, alone among the states, has moved forward into a truly restructured and competitive electricity era, which has brought lower prices, greater reliability, and increased consumer choice.
Consumers, taxpayers, and businesses all win when voluntary, market-based relationships work out complex problems like windstorm and homeowners’ insurance. However, when government steps in to fix the problem, it becomes a zero-sum game which pits one side against the other.
Whether it is more government programs, renewable energy mandates, or trial lawyers looking out for the little people, all of these measures wind up costing consumers and taxpayers more money.
A review of the 80th Texas Legislature’s work on property rights, homeowners' and windstorm insurance, electricity and renewable energy, civil justice, telecommunications, and financial regulation.
Cities and counties oppose using “possession, occupation, and enjoyment” because it would lead courts to stop the practices that the cities and counties want to continue: using eminent domain to take property from one property owner and give it to another to enhance local government tax revenue.
Next time gasoline prices jump, or electricity rates are going through the roof, or we find ourselves paying more for less car, we could do what everyone else does and blame the market. But whatever we do, we shouldn’t ask questions. After all, what we don’t know won’t hurt us.
Legislature Has Yet to Address Texas’ Kelo Problem
As it stands today, there is a good chance that after the legislature adjourns, Texas property owners will still be subject to the same takings that outraged the nation in the Kelo case.
Senate Bill 18: Texas’ Kelo Problem Still Not Solved
May 11, 2009
Texas cities believe that SB 18 will allow them to conduct eminent domain business as usual. That is correct. SB 18 does nothing to stop Kelo-style takings in Texas.
Homeowners' Insurance: The Problem with Prior Approval
May 01, 2009
The high level of regulatory intervention and resulting uncertainty brought about by prior approval has become a major problem. One significant aspect to this is the lack of capital commitment to the Texas homeowners’ market.
The best way to protect property rights is to define public use in the Texas Constitution; not to ban takings that are only for the “primary” purpose of economic development.
Wherever you wind up, Rush, we'd welcome your entrepreneurial spirit to Texas. Let’s hope that you join with another famous Texas transplant and freedom fighter, Davy Crockett, in saying, "You can all go to hell; I am going to Texas."
Texas needs a positive definition of "public use" in its eminent domain legislation. Legislative changes in 2005, in response to Kelo, attempted to solve this problem, but they came up short. This analysis takes a look at three of the bills up for consideration this session.
Policymakers who feel their constituents’ urgent need to “do something” don’t have to just sit back and watch the marketplace work. By repealing current subsidies, taxes, and mandates and rejecting new ones, they can save consumers as much as $4.3 billion a year.
Consumers don't need the government to protect them from high prices; they need the government to allow them to make their own choices about what products they will buy at what price.
While the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) may have been intended as a residual provider, it has become anything but that. Its unrealistically low rates have made TWIA an unbeatable competitor and are crowding out the private market.
This PowerPoint presentation covers Texas' current economic condition and what the state must do to continue to weather the economic storm and stay on the path of prosperity.
Consumer protection laws stand in stark contrast to the consumer-friendly workings of today's competitive homeowners' insurance market, where voluntary participation forces attention to the needs of consumers.
Testimony and Budget Recommendations on TDI and OPIC
February 23, 2009
Testimony and recommendations related to the budget and strategic planning of the Texas Department of Insurance and the Office of Public Insurance Counsel.
The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association (TWIA) provides windstorm and hail coverage in the 14 coastal counties and a few other specially-designated areas. All property insurers in Texas must participate in TWIA and must help pay losses. Although TWIA was intended to provide windstorm insurance coverage only to those who could not purchase insurance in the voluntary market, it is no longer an insurer of last resort.
When it comes to deregulation of the telecom industry, Texas is generally one step ahead of the rest of the nation. Thanks to the most recent legislation—SB 5—local telephone service for more than 15 million Texans was significantly deregulated as of January 1, 2006. This was a major step forward in reducing costs and bringing new technologies and services to millions of Texans.
When a state or municipality takes title to private property, the private property owner must be compensated for the property condemned by the government. The Texas
Constitution calls for “adequate compensation” to be paid. At issue is what constitutes “adequate compensation” when private property in Texas is condemned by the State or a Texas municipality under the constitutional takings authority known as “eminent domain.”
The organizational structure of Texas’ state court system was originally laid out in Article V of the State Constitution adopted in 1891. Piecemeal and ad hoc restructuring over the intervening years have resulted in an antiquated system full of irregularities, inconsistencies, and overlapping jurisdictions.
In order to bring simplicity and rationality to the legal process, the system’s organization and administration should be reformed.
Texas consumers are burdened with high tax rates on telecommunications services. The average consumer who subscribes to telephone, cable, and cellular service pays annual taxes of around $318. Texas’ tax rate on landline telephone service is the third highest in the nation.
While the Legislature has improved the franchise process, it has left franchise fees at high levels. So while the process is now more efficient, consumers still pay fees that provide
revenues for cities far above what it costs to manage the public ROW.
Monopolies or Markets? Electric Competition in Texas
November 20, 2008
2009-2010 Legislators' Guide to the Issues
Introducing competition into Texas’ retail and wholesale electricity markets has made Texas the greatest success story in the United States—if not the world. That success is largely due to policymakers’ willingness to let markets work and not manipulate prices or other policies for political reasons.
Texas has taken some steps since Kelo in moving toward protecting its citizens from eminent domain abuse. However, the veto of HB 2006 and the failure to pass HB 3057 last session have left much to be done in restoring Texans’ property rights.
A careful look at the costs of wind energy in Texas reveals that Texas consumers and taxpayers ought to think twice about the state’s current policy of subsidizing wind energy.
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.
Cutting the telephone and cable franchise fees in half would reduce most consumers’ bills by another 3 percent or so, lowering Texas telecom taxes by more than $500 million a year.
Testimony before the House Committee on Land Use and Regulation
Taking private property is not only wrong, it is also unnecessary. A recent study shows that economic develop can and does occur without eminent domain, another reason why Texas should reform its laws for the post-Kelo world we live in.
With two years of full deregulation before the next legislative session, Texans have the opportunity to get a clear picture of the true effect of deregulation of the Texas electricity market. The short answer is that consumers are benefitting.
Today’s Technology Makes Oil, Natural Gas, and Coal the Fuels of Choice
Energy production from fossil fuels, e.g., coal, oil and natural gas, is often blamed for many of the world’s environmental ills. But no one today was around to experience firsthand how dirty the world was before the invention of the internal combustion engine, when horses—and horse manure—were prevalent on city streets.
The “Football Follies” series of films contains classic highlights of players bumbling, stumbling, and fumbling their way across the gridiron. While highly entertaining – such as ex-Minnesota Viking Jim Marshall’s fumble recovery and ensuing 65 yard run to the wrong end zone – they also provide excellent examples of how not to play football. Recent government forays into consumer regulation provide similar examples of how not to intervene in markets.
Today, there are too few people willing to follow the facts when it comes to the Texas electric market. Though the facts clearly point to the success of deregulation, many still refuse to believe that consumer choice is a good idea.
Insurance regulators and consumer advocates are in denial regarding the problems caused by regulations and subsidies in the Texas homeowners’ and windstorm insurance markets. This presentation given at the Heritage Foundation examines the problems and how to remedy them.
Economic Development, Affordable Housing, and Eminent Domain
October 22, 2007
PowerPoint Presentation
Eminent domain is seen by cities as a “tool” to be used to foster economic development. However, this presentation to the Texas Association of Community Development Corporations shows that eminent domain harms those in need of affordable housing.
Time to Bring Consumer Regulation into the 21st Century
“Many people want the government to protect the consumer,” said the late economist Milton Friedman. “A much more urgent problem is to protect the consumer from the government.”
The recent decisions by Farmers Insurance and Allstate Insurance to withdraw their proposed homeowners’ insurance rate increases in the face of opposition from the Texas Department of Insurance are an unfortunate turn of events for Texas consumers and taxpayers. The regulation of homeowners’ insurance in Texas has for years produced poor results for consumers.
With HB 2006, Texas has taken a determined stand against the U.S. Supreme Court’s abandonment of one of our most fundamental rights, saying “No” to Kelo and “Yes” to private property rights.
After a detailed interim study, the Legislature is addressing eminent domain in several pieces of legislation which are expected to soon be considered by the Texas Senate. This paper provides an analysis of key provisions of these bills.
The practical problem with the Kelo decision was not so much what it said, but the problems with Texas eminent domain law that it exposed. This testimony examines four key areas that need to be addressed in HB 2006 and HB 3057.
Pending Legislation Would Harm Texas Consumers and Economy
A common saying around the Texas Legislature is that bad facts make bad law, meaning that lawmakers too often respond to an isolated bad situation or actor with an overreaching law that applies to everyone in every situation. Imagine, then, how bad the law can be when lawmakers respond not to facts, but to myths and misrepresentations.
The issue boils down to basic honesty and fairness. The TIF was created for a specific purpose and for a specific period of time. The original goal has been met and the policy rationale has disappeared. Given the disproportionate taxes they already pay on telecommunications, Texas consumers deserve relief. And yet the tax lives on.
This paper takes a look at the debate over electric deregulation and what needs--or doesn't need--to be done to ensure competition and consumer choice in Texas' world class electric market.
Some Proposed “Fixes” Could Harm the Texas Economy
From tort, tax, and budget reforms to deregulation of the telecom and electric markets, Texans have decided that markets are often a better solution to our problems than government intervention. The results have proven this to be the right approach.
Now that TXU will no longer exist as we knew it, what is left? Just the facts, which show a very different picture than what most people are trying to paint.
This brief examines the need for Texas to implement a long-term solution for securing affordable, reliable energy supplies that relies on a proper understanding of our current situation and market-based innovations.
This brief provides the facts and recommendations on the current state of electric competition in Texas and how competition is working to the consumer's advantage.
Texas stands out among the states for the competitive performance of both its retail and wholesale markets. This review of an upcoming Foundation study explains why this is and how to maintain our competitive edge.
Texans pay the third highest level of state and local telecom transaction taxes in the nation. This brief examines the facts about Texas' high rate, identifying over $382 million in telecommunications tax cuts that could be implemented by the 80th Texas Legislature.
This letter to the editor of the Wall Street Journal was in response to an October 27 article, "In Texas Energy Deregulation, Top Company Is a Winner."
This report examines the background of the Kelo decision, looks at the current state of eminent domain protections in Texas, and makes recommendations about what must be done to restore the centrality of private property rights that existed when our nation and our state were founded.
Economic Growth Depends on Reliable Electricity Supply
Increased electric regulation will threaten innovation, investment and the reliability of supplies, harming our ability to bring new employers to Texas and maintain the strong job creation rate.
This Q&A provides a basic understanding of the USF--its purpose, strengths and weaknesses--and makes recommendations as to how it can be modified to bring more competition to the Texas telecommunications marketplace.
It shouldn't surprise people to know we are facing the Catch-22 of choosing between clean air and consumers’ pocketbooks because of a history of poorly thought out environmental regulations.
An Examination of Telecommunications Franchise Fees
To insure a level playing field and increased competition in the telecommunications market, reforms to the management of the public rights of way must be based on the ideal of limited government.
In a world where voice, video and data communications are merging into almost indistinguishable packets of electrons, taxes still discriminate based on the type of telecommunications service provided.
Bill Peacock, director of the Center for Economic Freedom, testified on the issue telecommunications deregulation on April 27 before the Senate Committee on Business and Commerce and the House Committee on Regulated Industries.
In the last 11 years, great accomplishments have been made in reforming the Texas civil justice system. But there are still problems to address. This report examines the options for continued tort reform in Texas.
This brief explains the concept of consumer stickiness as a sign of healthy competition and an integral part of the market process based on individual preferences.
Consumer choice, not government regulation, has provided the best value for policyholders. More of this, along with some fair weather, is what will lead to lower homeowners' insurance costs in Texas.
Is the Free Market Working for the Texas Homeowners' Insurance Market?
February 28, 2006
This paper provides recommendations designed to remove the uncertainty and instability that government price regulation brings to the homeowners’ insurance market and allow the free market and regulators to each do what they do best.
Just as Texas has become the national leader in deregulation of telecommunications, it should also become a national leader in reducing telecommunications taxes. The recommendations in this paper would save Texans over $382 million per year. But only if a concerted effort is made to reduce government reliance on these existing tax revenues.
It's good news that telecommunications reform is moving forward in Texas. But there is a lot of work to be done before we enjoy the fruits of a truly deregulated marketplace.
Since the early '90s, an unprecedented effort to restore justice to its rightful place in Texas courtrooms has taken place. With a little more effort, we can finish the job.
Protecting Private Property Rights in Texas After Kelo
November 08, 2005
In its recent Kelo decision, the Supreme Court essentially
rewrote the Public Use Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Texas Legislature responded and took a step in the right direction, but more must be done to adequately protect Texans' property rights.
This policy perspective examines competition in the telecommunications industry, looks at specific aspects of the regulatory system in Texas, analyzes the provisions and impact of SB 5, and looks at the road ahead for telecommunications in Texas.
But Consumers Across The Country Are Likely To Benefit
For the last eight months Texas has been the major battle ground in the telecom wars with the traditional phone companies and the cable industry going head-to-head over deregulation and access to millions of Texas consumers.
Texas led the way for telecommunications reform in 1995 and has the opportunity to do so once again. But the market doesn't wait for anyone. If we don't act, other states will, and Texas consumers will suffer from delayed improvements in products and pricing.
Texans Also Vulnerable to Economic Development Seizures
Economic freedom did not come easy for the American colonists, and it has not proven easy to maintain for American citizens. The recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling makes it far easier for local government to transfer the private property of one landowner to another using eminent domain. Texans today find themselves quite vulnerable to economic development takings of private property.
Consumer protection is big business these days. Many people and organizations benefit tremendously from appearing to protect the “little guy” from profit-seeking corporations.
Proponents of mandating the increased use of wind power
claim it is less expensive than traditional sources of
power. However, that claim ignores the facts.
Affordable Local Service and the Universal Service Fund
Rates for Texas basic residential telephone service, including
the federal subscriber line charge, range from
about $13.82 per month in rural areas to $16.72 in urban
areas. But long-run incremental costs for service range
from $11.84 per month in the most densely-populated
areas to more than $250 per month in rural areas. Approximately
95 percent of all basic residential lines are
subsidized. Sources for the subsidies include added features,
business service, long distance and the Universal
Service Fund.
There is no doubt that the regulation of homeowners’
insurance needed changing in 2002-03. However, many policymakers seeking to remedy the situation have not focused primarily on the faulty laws and regulations. Instead, the focus has too often been on insurance companies, the high premiums they were charging and how to get immediate relief for consumers.
Telecommunications technology has been rapidly changing
since the breakup of AT&T in 1984, producing products
and services unforeseen by the courts. One of the major
advances has been the convergence of voice, video and
data services across all types of telecommunications media. The regulation of telecommunications has not kept pace
with the technological changes, resulting in regulatory
inconsistency between various products and service providers.
Even though oil is not a significant source of fuel for electricity generation, recent spikes in oil prices have increased fears that affordable supplies of fossil fuels are running short, heightening interest in renewable energy in Texas. After all, it isn’t likely that we will run out of sunlight, water and wind. Unfortunately, abundant supplies of renewable resources do not guarantee abundant supplies of affordable energy. Even with sizable subsidies, renewable energy is generally more expensive than energy produced from nonrenewable sources.
The Real Cancer Is Found In Litigation, Not The Examining Room
Though opinions differ on its nature, everyone seems to be in agreement that Americans today face a crisis when it comes to asbestos. One side says America is in the midst of an “asbestos disease crisis,” while the other side claims we face an “asbestos litigation crisis.” So which is it? There is no better place to look for answers than the Lone Star State.
Telecommunications remains one of the most highly taxed and regulated industries in Texas. But legislation passed by the Texas House will provide more economic freedom, lower costs and better service.
Governments Should Get Out of the Business of Business
Lawmakers in Austin will soon consider legislation that will prevent cities from competing with the private sector in providing wireless internet service. Municipalities argue they should be allowed to offer this service. But is it good for consumers and taxpayers?
Asbestos litigation is a nationwide phenomenon. It is important to determine the costs it has produced for the nation’s economy, and the way it has affected us all. The impact on Texas is – and will continue to be – significant, as this review demonstrates.
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