HB 1315: Remove occupational license requirements for art therapists, auctioneers, interior designers, funeral home directors, and wigologists

House Bill 1315, sponsored by Speaker Philip Gunn, would eliminate licensing requirements for art therapists, auctioneers, interior designers, funeral home directors, and wigologists.

Each of these professions pose no legitimate threat to public safety and the state government has no rational basis for regulating.

While public safety is the purported reasoning for licensing, licensing laws erect a barrier to entry, making it difficult for people to enter a profession. All of the time it takes to meet the education and training requirements and study for and pass exams is costly for people looking to enter a field.

Sometimes this is going to be necessary, like healthcare providers. But probably not wigologists or interior designers.

According to the Institute for Justice, the licensing laws in Mississippi are the 19th most burdensome in the country. While not terrible, it leaves room for improvement. Of the 102 professions that do not require a college degree studied in the report, Mississippi required a license for 66 of them. Much of this growth has been recent. From 1993 to 2012, the number of professions that now require a license to work in Mississippi increased by 49.

These reforms are a step in the right direction to making it easier to work in Mississippi.

Empower Mississippi supports this legislation. 

It has been referred to Accountability, Efficiency, Transparency. You can read the bill here.