One of the great free-market economists of my lifetime, the late Milton Friedman, once said: “One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.” That, of course, is true in lots of areas of policy, but if what’s happening in Seattle is any indication, increases in...
As a former legislator, I understand (although never enjoyed) political pandering. I’ll admit that sometimes I would say nothing or be very non-committal when a group (especially a group of constituents) wanted me to take a particular position, and I’ll also admit that I likely pandered on occasion to groups that I could do it to in...
This story from The Hill popped up in my news aggregator a little while ago. Sometimes I don’t get stories until a day after they were published… Anyway, the essence of the story is this: Congress and the President have a tentative agreement to give all federal employees 12 weeks of PAID parental leave. Current...
I was at a conference workshop this morning–about “regulatory overreach”–and one of the panelists was legislator form Idaho. This legislator made sure that we all knew what they had done this year–essentially repealing ALL of the regulatory code through a universal sunset process, and then adding a few critical ones back in. Given that most...
News from Michigan today – “Michigan could put more people to work and add $746.2 million to state and local government treasuries by reforming or eliminating occupational licensure mandates — dwarfing the $195 million governments here currently collect in licensing fees.” This is based on a study coming out of a Massachusetts based nonprofit. The...
Those of us who work with occupational licensing sometimes operate in a bit of an endless loop. You see, we’re not entirely sure that there are very many occupations for which the state should be licensing (granting permission to work). At the same time, we often promote things like “universal recognition” legislation, which would say...
One of the best parts of working at the Platte Institute is helping Nebraskans overcome barriers to opportunity. There are so many people with great ideas for making life better in our state. But often, working people in our state face obstacles to making life better for themselves and others because of laws that were...
It caught my eye that the McCook Farm, Ranch & Hemp Expo took place last week. Horse sales and ag exhibitors were featured alongside expert panels on the cultivation of hemp, a crop that is returning to the ag sector in Nebraska following the 2018 Farm Bill allowing industrial hemp. That might be a surprising...
This brief article crossed my path on Sunday afternoon. Officials in a southeast Nebraska county are considering a change to their local wind-energy regulations at the request of a group that opposes the growing presence of wind farms in rural areas. Gage County’s Board of Supervisors will hold a meeting next month to discuss the...
One of the main currents in occupational licensing adjustments that we’ve seen over the last five years or so, is an effort to make it easier for military members–and their spouses–to move across jurisdictions and still be able to work in an area they’ve trained in. The most recent example I’ve seen (and the trigger...
LB299 is already helping us have a more informed discussion about job licensing.
Folks in "liberal Massachusetts" are currently looking at the cost of occupational licensing, thanks to a report from the Pioneer Institute (with help from our friends at the Institute for Justice). Their report points out some of the many inconsistencies like those we've seen in Nebraska. For instance, as this Boston Globe article points out,...
Future Florida House Speaker, Paul Renner, seems to be declaring war on occupational licensure in his state. “Occupational licensing is essentially a permission slip for you do what you are passionate about, what you are trained to do, and to provide for your family,” he added. “Think about that: government giving you a permission slip...
There is—seemingly--cross-partisan support for occupational licensing reform, and yet little seems to get done.