The state of Arkansas imposes licenses on more occupations than most big states. The over licensing of occupations creates a substantial barrier to those who want to get into an occupation. It also limits new competition for those already in the occupation.
The Arkansas legislature decided to do something about the over regulation of occupations and created a subcommittee to review the laws and make recommendations.
In December, the Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee, co-chaired by Senator Missy Irvin, (R-Mountain View), and Rep. Richard Womack, (R-Arkadelphia), issued its first list of recommendations and proposed legislation. The recommendations included the elimination of three licenses.
- Eliminate the license for Individual Sprinkler Fitters (fire sprinklers).
- Eliminate the license for Individual Motor Vehicle Salesperson and New Recreational Vehicle Salesperson.
- Change the license for Lime Vendor Applicator to a registration requirement.
The first two licenses listed are an issue currently having double licensing. The business must have a license and the individual doing the work must also have a license.
The Lime Vendor Applicator license only has thirty-five licensees but the recommendation is to change it from a license to registration.
You may be thinking “Is that it? With the heavy regulation of occupations is that all the subcommittee thinks can be eliminated?”
Although there are not major changes being recommended this year, the progress made by the subcommittee is still a major step. The subcommittee’s review was always understood as something that would take several years to complete. Starting the process is always the hardest part and to complicate matters the subcommittee was working during Covid-19 which slowed the pace of most legislative meetings.
If the subcommittee continues its work, it will have experience to build upon in reviewing other licenses in the future.
But it is going to be a difficult task. When legislators meet to review license requirements, almost everyone else in the room will want to keep the licenses and requirements just as they are. Bureaucrats will not want to eliminate anything because administering those requirements is what gives them a job. State board members are unlikely to want to eliminate licenses because most board members are members of the occupation being regulated and they are unlikely to want to see more people get into the occupation who may or may not have as high qualifications as themselves. Many licensees will not want changes to be made that would result in even more competition for business.
Also, the subcommittee cannot just blindly chop out licensing requirements. Some licenses and some requirements are absolutely necessary to protect the public from harm. It will take time to sift though all the current requirements to see what is necessary and what is just government bloat.
The effort to curb occupational licensing is at a critical point. Will it fizzle and fail or will the legislature redouble their effort?
Legislation changed by Rep. Dotson.
At this writing it appears only one of the three bills recommended by the subcommittee has been filed, but the other two are expected to be filed.
Representative Jim Dotson (R- Bentonville) filed HB1355 to remove licensing requirements for a motor vehicle salesperson and a recreational vehicle salesperson. CAUTION. Rep. Dotson’s bill differs from the subcommittee’s recommendation. His bill adds an unrelated provision expanding government by creating a government grant program for automotive technologist education. HB1355 has passed the House of Representatives and has been sent to the Senate.
How have other efforts to curb government faired?
To put this stage of the subcommittee’s work in context consider two previous failed efforts to curb state government. The first effort, Sunset Review was passed in the late 1970’s and the other, Performance Based Budgeting was passed in the 1990’s.
Under Sunset Review every state agency, board, and commission was scheduled to expire in a few years unless the Arkansas legislature passed legislation to continue the agency. The first cycle saw a few boards repealed, but they were ones that had not met in years because their tasks had been finished. The legislature quit the process at least two years before it was to be completed. The decision being whether to keep an entire agency or let it expire was not manageable. Perhaps some progress could have been made if the legislature had focused on the various programs of an agency instead of having an up or down vote on entire agencies.
The next big effort to curb state government was the passage of Performance Based Budgeting in the 1990’s. It was supposed to evaluate how each state agency was preforming and reward or punish the agency through the agency’s budget. Unfortunately, this budget model was passed when there was a major change in the state’s budgeting and accounting software. The new software was a major fiasco, plus the vender was never able to provide the part of the system that was necessary to do performance-based budgeting. This software failure was cited in the repeal of performance-based budgeting. It was repealed without ever being implemented. There was another reason for the repeal that was not mentioned in the legislation. Many standards developed to judge performance turned out to be arbitrary. So the state still rewards agencies with across the board increases regardless of the importance of the programs and regardless of the agency’s performance.
With these past failures it is even more important that this effort to curb unnecessary occupational licensing succeed.
Do you support the subcommittee effort?
The legislature’s effort to curb unnecessary occupational licensing is worthwhile but it is also a thankless job. Fortunately, some legislators, such as Representative Womack, have been working for years to eliminate unnecessary occupational regulation and are not showing any signs of giving up.
If it cannot be done with a Republican supermajority in the Arkansas legislature then it will never be
