New State Motto "Occuptional Licensing or You'll Die!" - Granite Grok

New State Motto “Occuptional Licensing or You’ll Die!”

A Granite State Future ComradeGranite State Futures Blog

We’d like to give Senator Sharon Carson the benefit of the doubt, but it is tough when her husband Gregory Carson is the lead lawyer and representative for HUD in NH.

When anyone questions the Granite State Future program, he is the one they send to put out the fires and quell the ‘myths’. (…)(So) you have to wonder why his wife, Senator Sharon Carson, was sponsoring legislation to establish “the board of building officials for the certification and regulation of persons enforcing the state building code and conducting building inspections.”

Bill Text SB 315

(…)  We couldn’t help but think this was yet another tactic in a multi-pronged attack on our local control, a measure being taken to ensure that the ‘board’ is zoning ordinance friendly, that is to say, zoning ordinances that come with or are changed by participation in federal grants such as Granite State Future.

SB 315 went to interim study (put out to pasture), but was it because New Hampshire has too many certification boards/committees (Occupational cartels) already?

Here’s some scuttle-butt on the bills ‘history’ from some (unofficial/unapproved) meeting minutes I stumbled on by the New Hampshire State Building Code Review Board.

SB 315, establishes the board of building officials for the certification and regulation of persons enforcing the state building code and conducting building inspections. Linda stated the language needs to be amended in re to appeals. Wayne Richardson gave clarification and history of this bill. This bill was sponsored by the NH Building Officials Association. The NHBOA had been told there was a possible move in the legislature by different groups for communities that are doing building inspections, that they would be required to hire licensed electricians, licensed plumbers, and licensed gas fitters, to do those inspections. The cost would be extremely prohibitive for most  communities. A deal was made that if building inspections became certified by the State of NH they would be willing to accept that as a reasonable accommodation. The NHBOA found a sponsor and legislative services created SB 315. There will be education requirements, licensing requirements, and licensing certifications. This will require continuing education to understand the codes as they’re written. There will be a 7 member board that will determine what educational classes will count for continuing ed. The cost of certification is $200.00 for a two year period.

John Starr estimated that an 80 hour ICC course, continuing ed, would be approximately $800.00 (this is a rough estimate).
A typical online course is approx. $60.00 and will take 1-2 hours. The cost of certification can range from $150.00 up to $900.00 depending on what type of certification you are going for.

So rumor had it that ‘some towns’ were looking to complicate the inspection process by insisting that certain card carrying tradesman be required to do inspections (which someone would have to pay for) and as a favor to the NHBOA, a bill was drafted that would create a building inspectors cartel, complete with requirements, rules, classes and certification fees, (all driving up the cost of building inspections), which they would most likley get to help oversee?

So no, it was probably not because we license more occupations than nay other state in the nation. (Maybe some little bird will tell me why it went off to interim study.)

Whatever the deal is with SB 315 was, New Hampshire’s state  motto should probably be changed to “Occupational Licensing Or You’ll Die!”

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