Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine February 2018

inspector. They see problems, both small and great, all the time. When an inspector discovers a problem, a licensed contractor is usually quick to make a correction; however, an unlicensed contractor has little to lose. Without a license, the state has no carrot to dangle in front of the problem contractor; i.e., you can continue to operate your business if you correct the code violation and make the consumer whole. Every inspector will tell you that when a company has a license and wants to continue to operate within their community, they are much more likely to rectify a problem they created. This, of course, is far better for the consumer than a civil suit. Even though a claim could be $10,000 or more, most claims are too small to justify hiring a lawyer and winning in court only to find out that the malefactor has no money. (Just an aside. Administrative lawyers are frequently the ones that suggest bringing a civil suit when there is a problem; but, a practicing attorney will tell you it is seldom beneficial to the consumer.) So how do we determine when licensing and regulation is necessary? Remember that all licensing in Arkansas is the result of a law passed by both houses of the legislature and signed by the governor. Extensive vetting has already taken place. These are the elected representatives of the people whose job it is too protect the health and safety of the public. In the case of the HVACR industry, it took two

attempts to get a licensing bill passed and signed into law. One in 1989 and another in 1991. It was not an easy process but one that many in our industry believed in and sacrificed significant time to get passed. The point is that while some licensing may need to be revisited and repealed, the Arkansas HVACR Licensing Program is not one of them. Andrew Gavil, the Director of the Office of Policy Planning at the Federal Trade Commission said, “The FTC and its staff recognize that occupational licensure can offer many important benefits. It can protect consumers from actual health and safety risks and support other valuable public policy goals.” He went on to say, “…However, that does not mean that all licensure is warranted…” ( 8) It is important to state that everyone I know in the HVACR industry is against unnecessary regulation and licensing. Anti-regulation is the gravy on our biscuit; however, you can get too much gravy and you can get too much anti-regulation. We need licensing and regulation to protect the public safety in the HVACR industry. That takes us back to the issue of, “Who should make the decision on the necessity of licensing and regulation and by what “yard stick” should they measure the need. Even though the legislature and the governor in 1991 made that measurement and determined the