Time to ease up on licensing laws?

Our View

While Arkansas has a lot to be known for it was interesting to note how the state licenses professions and that it’s licensing laws rank as the sixth-most burdensome because of high-average education and experience requirements.

Being the cynics that we are we figure the reason Arkansas requires so many professional licenses is to make it more difficult to enter, thus keeping the supply of professionals down and demand up.

Now we perfectly understand professional license requirements practice medicine in Arkansas or a lawyer, or an electrician, or a plumber but come on folks why in heavens name should there be license requirements to spread pesticides around our homes or a massage therapists? Or, how about why a professional license is needed to be a manicurist.

To show just how ridiculous Arkansas’ licensing laws are we found that people who want to become a milk sampler or a title examiner or simply shampoo someone’s hair must have a state license. Listen, we could go on and on as to who must obtain a license and it is absolutely ridiculous and totally unnecessary.

In most cases, to obtain an Arkansas occupational license requires a person to take multiple exams and then pay the state fees. The cynic in us leads us to believe this has all been designed to make it difficult for the blue collar workers in Arkansas to become a hair stylist, a barber or many other non-critical professions as well as cut down on the competition.

And, we have to point out, these ridiculous licensing requirements have been heavily promoted throughout the many years by political lobbyists who have successfully persuaded our politicians to pass these requirements.

Possibly because a recent study by the Arlington, Va.based Institute for Justice concluded in a November 2017 report that Arkansas ranked as “the third most broadly and erroneously licensed” state in the entire nation because it licenses so many occupations so onerously that our elected politicians have now decided it is time to maybe review how the state licenses professions.

It was this year and during the regular session, the Legislature authorized a comprehensive review of the state’s various occupational licenses, certificates, registrations, permits and other forms of government intrusion.

Seldom can we recall that there was so much support for this much-needed review and, in fact, it is probably the first time there was actually unanimous support in both the House and Senate for the creation of the Occupational Licensing Review Subcommittee.

Now what we are concerned about is what co-chairman of the sub-committee, Rep. Richard Womack, RArkadelphia, said about the goal. He made it clear it isn’t to reduce the number of licensed occupations but rather “to reduce rules and regulations that might be a bit of an overreach.”

Based on the professional study on this issue we would have thought that not only would these politicians reduce the rules but also eliminate some of the many and clearly unnecessary licenses and make it easier for Arkansans to earn a living without government’s unnecessary rules, regulations and fees.