League of Arizona Cities and Towns, says the bill is unnecessary because cities don’t heavily regulate professions
By: Rachel Leingang | Arizona Capitol Times
If there’s a professional license, there’s probably an Arizona lawmaker who wonders if it should exist.
And the Arizona Legislature, following the example of the Gov. Doug Ducey, is attacking with increased vigor the government licenses required for some jobs.
More than a dozen bills this session take aim at various professions, from taxidermists to embalmers, as part of a continued push in Arizona to deregulate occupations. Some seek to deregulate specific industries, while others push for broader limits to licenses on the whole.
Arizona has effectively become a breeding ground for licensing changes, something that states led by both parties have undertaken in recent years.
The efforts come after years of advocacy from a handful of libertarian-leaning groups like the Goldwater Institute, the Institute for Justice and the Koch-funded Americans for Prosperity. The groups claim the growing number of occupational licenses keep people out of certain jobs and protect the pocketbooks of the folks who already work in those fields.
