The Pelican Institute is launching an initiative this week to strike down excessive occupational licensing requirements in the state that the institute says have barred residents from practicing their chosen profession.
The Louisiana Board of Veterinary Medicine on Thursday will hear a petition from two veterinarians, Lara Stooksbury and Courtney Breen. They were denied licenses to practice in the state because they didn’t meet a Louisiana occupational requirement of working an average of 20 hours a week for five years while they practiced in other states.
The petition urging the board to change its rules was filed by Pelican litigators as part of its Right to Earn a Living initiative, which aims to overturn overly restrictive rules that critics say have stifled economic opportunity in Louisiana.
“We have identified at least 29 occupational licensing restrictions in Louisiana that we intend to petition for reform: everything from ‘good moral character’ requirements for earth drillers to bachelor's degree requirements for pest-control applicators to 40 hours of required training for shampooers in the state,” James Baehr, the institute’s general counsel, told the Louisiana Record.
The institute’s initiative will give people the ability to fight unneeded rules that tend to protect people currently working in professions and raise the costs of services, according to Baehr.
“We are the worst state in the country for licensing low-income professions,” he said, noting that stiff occupational requirements for professions such as hair braiders discourage workers.
Currently, Louisiana has only licensed 19 hair braiders, while Mississippi has 1,200 people working in that profession, according to Baehr. He added that the state has more than 400 boards or commissions that regulate entry into certain occupations.
The Pelican Institute’s initiative comes in the wake of a new law that allows people to challenge the rules of the oversight boards. Once a petition for change is submitted, the board has 90 days to decide whether to change the rules, Baehr said. A lawsuit can then be filed if the board ignores the call for a rule change.
He said he was hopeful that the occupational licensing boards would react positively to efforts to make the rules less restrictive.
“I think we’re going to make significant progress this year,” Baehr said.