Bill Description: Senate Bill 1429 would create a process to request an occupational licensing authority to waive or modify a licensing requirement. 

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NOTE: The House Amendment to Senate Bill 1429 makes the bill meaningfully weaker, declaring that the provisions of the bill "shall not allow waivers or variances that would grant an initial license to an individual who does not meet the statutory requirements for an initial license." This amendment effectively negates the primary purpose of the bill and calls into question what purpose the amended bill would serve.

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?

Senate Bill 1429 would create Section 67-9415, Idaho Code, to allow any person to petition an occupational licensing authority "for a waiver of or variance from a licensing requirement if, due to the petitioner's circumstances, the application of the licensing requirement is unreasonable and would impose undue hardship or burden on the petitioner with no offsetting public health, safety, or welfare benefit to the public."

The petitioner can propose "an alternative that, in the opinion of the licensing authority, will afford substantially equal protection of health, safety, and welfare intended by the particular licensing requirement for which the waiver or variance is requested."

A waiver of or variance may also be approved if it would "test an innovative practice or model that will, in the opinion of the licensing authority, generate meaningful evidence for the licensing authority in consideration of a licensing requirement change."

Unfortunately, this bill will not compel licensing authorities to grant any waivers or variances. Such authorities may deny any petition, though they must do so in writing and state the reasons for the denial. Concerningly, the bill provides no recourse for those whose petitions are improperly denied, saying, "any licensing authority decision denying a petition shall be considered a final agency action."

The bill says, "Following the granting of a waiver or variance a licensing authority shall consider a change that will allow all similarly situated persons to derive the same benefits granted to the petitioner."

Occupational licensing is always a government-created barrier to market participation, and this bill would only be a small step in pushing back on these government intrusions into what was once a free market. Nevertheless, it is a step in the correct direction. 

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