Colin Wilhelm shares with Washington Examiner readers good news about an important occupational licensing reform.
Depending on the state, it might take a license to wield a blow-dryer professionally. Or decorate the interiors of homes. Or teach ballroom dancing.
Arizona, like most states, requires substantial training to grant licenses for a wide variety of jobs. Now, though, Gov. Doug Ducey is poised to sign legislation that would lower the barrier for entry for workers who already earned a license for their profession in a different state. The bill just passed by the legislature would give workers reciprocity if they were licensed for at least a year and in good standing with their home state licensing body or board.
Ducey, 54, a second-term Republican and former CEO of the ice cream vendor Cold Stone Creamery, has pushed for the bill to make its way to his desk.
“We want Arizona to be the best state in the nation in which to live, work, and play, and part of work is building and scaling a business,” Ducey said of the bill in an interview with the Washington Examiner. “We’ve got more jobs available in Arizona today than we’ve got people to fill them. We’re one of the fastest-growing states in the nation.
“Just because somebody moves from the city of Chicago or Los Angeles, they don’t lose the skills that they possess when they cross the border, so we want to let them work and let them earn a living,” he said.
