Telecommunications plays an important and growing role in our economy, and therefore the rules and regulations governing the industry will literally shape our economic competitiveness for many years to come. In this unique sector of the economy, federal and state laws create a dizzying complexity that makes it one of the most regulated – and taxed – in Texas. In this report, a free-market perspective is brought to the debate as Texas lawmakers look to overhaul the agency that oversees telecommunications regulation in the state – and therefore the regulations themselves.
Economy
Don’t Fence Me In: Lianne’s Story
Family, then finances—and opportunity. Those are what brought Lianne Halpern back to tiny Shamrock, a small, dusty stop on the famous Route 66 in the Texas panhandle. Like generations of Americans before, Lianne and her family had traveled west along that route in search of the golden promises of California. Lianne’s father worked in the...
January 29, 2026