The evidence was sprinkled throughout this year’s legislative session: Innovation in the marketplace is alive and well.
Unfortunately, as we saw, so is opposition by the forces of the status quo.
Perhaps no such storyline got more attention during this year’s session than the one pitting ride-share services such as Uber and Lyft against traditional taxicab companies. The new entrants connect passengers with drivers via slick smartphone apps, and they have proven immensely popular.
Market share-losing taxis have gotten tired of it. They sought to have Uber and Lyft legislated into oblivion. (That point was contested, but the proposed bill would have forced traditional taxi fare rates on the new companies, which have thrived by letting prices move with supply and demand. It also would have essentially outlawed the apps they rely on.)
An Uber-rider revolt helped ensure the bill never made it to a floor vote, and in the end the discussion was moving in the more free-market direction of some deregulation for the taxi industry.
The results were not, however, as positively pro-market on other fronts.
Tesla, the maker of high-end electric automobiles, has spurned the dealer-franchise model of car sales that has long dominated in Georgia. But the law allows it to sell only 150 of its direct-to-consumer vehicles here each year.
Some lawmakers, recognizing consumer demand, sought to increase that number to 1,500. Their bill never made it out of committee.
Speaking of alternative energy, if homeowners or businesses in Georgia want solar panels for their own use, they must pay the entire cost of equipment and installation up-front. As the upfront cost can run tens of thousands of dollars, while the payoff arrives over a long period of time, that’s quite a disincentive.
In some other states, the company that installs the panels can offer loans or leases instead. It’s a market-driven way for more people to produce their own energy without taxpayer subsidies.
The power companies balked, though, so third-party financing of solar will be studied by a committee instead.
Brewing isn’t a new technology. But the growing popularity of home- and craft brewing, including by brewpub restaurants, has consumers thirsty for a wider variety of beer. Brewers, meanwhile, want an alternative to Georgia’s stifling distribution system.
The good news: A bill to loosen somewhat the legal restrictions on transporting homemade beer now awaits the governor’s signature. The bad news: A bill to open the door ever so slightly for small craft brewers to sell their beer without any, ahem, help from the distributors went precisely nowhere.
On the education front, I have already lamented that Senate leaders killed modest measures to help charter schools. A bid to increase the amount of tax credits available to people and companies who donate to private-school scholarship funds also died — even though all the credits for 2014 were claimed before the end of January. Some low-income students stand to lose their scholarships and return to public schools, likely costing the state far more money than a cap increase.
Resistance to change by incumbents in the market will always be strong. It will take relentless pressure by the innovators, and those who want what they’re offering, to wear them and their political allies down.
