Mississippi has 29 independent occupational boards that license workers from barbers to public accountants.
The stated reason they exist is legitimate: To ensure professionals have the proper credentials so that the public is not ripped off or injured.
Yet they often have another purpose that doesn’t serve the public interest: restricting how many people can work in a profession to keep it lucrative for those already established in the field.
The Joint Legislative Committee on Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review (PEER), which is tasked with ensuring efficient government operation in the state, has made some commonsense recommendations for improving the process.
In a report issued last month, it recommended the Legislature:
1. Create a centralized agency to assist the boards in daily administrative tasks, as 28 states already do. It said the boards in Mississippi employ 155 staff members now to do those jobs and estimates there could be considerable savings to the taxpayers from consolidation. For example, Georgia’s state boards spent $43 million in combined operating expenses in 1999. After switching to a centralized administration, the cost came down to only $9 million in 2018.
2. Adopt formal sunrise and sunset procedures for creating and keeping licensure boards. That is, have a formal process for how to start a new board if a new profession arises that needs regulation, and have a way to end boards that are no longer necessary.
These are the kinds of steps that private businesses do all the time to stay current on trends and to cut unnecessary expenses. Government should as well.
Gov. Phil Bryant has been a proponent of creating greater efficiency among occupational boards and stopping anti-competitive rules. For example, he vetoed a bill last year that would have increased the time for a real estate salesperson to become a broker from one year to three years.
Following PEER’s recommendations would further advance Bryant’s goals of greater efficiency and more economic freedom. Along with saving money from consolidating administrative work, it would give the state a leg in the door to detect anti-competitive practices. It’s a simple reform but a small step toward building a better state economy.
