Bill Description: House Bill 616 would establish a voluntary certification for interior designers and grant certified interior designers authority to submit technical submissions to obtain required permits for minor interior alterations to a structure.
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Does it increase barriers to entry into the market? Examples include occupational licensure, the minimum wage, and restrictions on home businesses. Conversely, does it remove barriers to entry into the market?
House Bill 616 would amend Section 54-306, Idaho Code, which deals with exemptions under the Idaho Architecture Practice Act.
It would add an exemption for “a certified interior designer signing and sealing a technical submission covering the scope of certified interior design.”
It says, “Certified interior designers shall have the authority to submit such a technical submission to a state or local governmental entity for the purpose of obtaining any requisite permit for an interior alteration or construction project. A local government shall process such filings in the same manner as it would if such filings were submitted by an architect.”
It then includes a long list of things a certified interior designer shall not be engaged in including “modifications or additions to a building envelope, including exterior walls, exterior wall claddings, exterior wall openings, exterior windows and doors, balconies and similar projections, roof assemblies and rooftop structures, and glass and glazing for exterior use in both vertical and sloped applications in buildings and structures.”
They would also be prohibited from making “changes of building use to occupancies not already allowed by the current building or structure”; “modifications or additions to the structural system of a building”; and “material changes to the mechanical, plumbing, heating, air conditioning, ventilation, electrical, low voltage, elevators and conveying, fire protection, or fire alarm systems.”
While this idea may initially sound mildly positive, Idaho does not currently certify interior designers, which is why the bill goes on to create a certification system and give the board of architects and landscape architects authority to promulgate rules regarding interior design certification.
It also says interior designers must meet “education and experience requirements” and pass a “qualification examination” (that doesn’t yet exist) in order to receive the certification required to sign, seal, and submit technical submissions.
As proposed, this certification is voluntary and only required for interior designers who wish to make these technical submissions, but there is simply no need for this expansion of government bureaucracy.
The bill could accomplish its stated goal simply by clarifying that all interior designers may seek permits for these minor interior changes. Or, given the limited scope of allowable work contained in the bill, such changes could be exempted from requiring permits at all.
Removing government barriers to market activity and participation is a positive concept, but creating new certifications and licenses and limiting participation in low-risk activities to those who jump through these bureaucratic hoops is expanding government’s interference in the market, not reducing it.
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