Licensing home repair will make it more expensive

Politicians and government officials like to regulate. That enables them to protect consumers, and at the same time protect their supporting businesses and unions from competition. Reduced competition, however, leads to higher prices for consumers, beyond the added cost of complying with the regulations.

New Jersey is as excessively regulatory as it is over-taxing. Both sap vitality from its economy and diminish its quality of life, particularly for those outside government and its protected supporters.

These reasons are sufficient to be cautious about significant new mandates, especially where adequate regulation seems already to exist. Even when more regulation can't be avoided, legislators should make a great effort to minimize its harms.

A bill in the Legislature would require home repair contractors to get a state license and no doubt pay a fee. They already are required to register with the state and pay a fee of $110. The bill would also require insurance; existing law already requires commercial general liability insurance of at least $500,000 per occurrence.

Under a new pro-union requirement, home repair contractors would have to complete an apprenticeship program or have at least two years' experience working for an already licensed contractor.

There would also be a new substantial cost, one that would limit entry into the market. Would-be contractors would have to demonstrate their financial stability by securing a bond of $10,000 to $50,000 to cover consumer claims against them.

The rationale for this jump in regulation, of course, is protecting consumers. Even though home repair contractors overwhelmingly and routinely do their work reliably under the existing regulatory system, there are a few who fail consumers and flee their responsibilities, sometimes trying to keep money advanced to them for the job. Perhaps this happened a bit more often under the stresses of the pandemic, disruption of supply chains and the state shutdown.

The licensing push seems to be about protecting a small number of consumers, some perhaps too trusting, at the expense of consumers and home repair workers in general. It will undoubtedly contribute to higher home repair costs (at a time when other government excesses have put a heavy inflation burden on the public), and discourage home maintenance.

We would like to see some data on the frequency of serious home repair problems under the existing regulatory regimen. Legislators also shouldn't respond hastily to problems during the pandemic that might resolve on their own.

Even then, if government officials and their allies can't refrain from increasing their control of another part of business, they should apply their new rules narrowly and only as needed. Many states only require licenses when work will be in excess thousands of dollars per dwelling -- in North Carolina more than $30,000. New York and Massachusetts don't require licensing, just registration.

Decades of greatly increased government regulatory control hasn't made New Jersey heaven on Earth, but it does have the potential to do the opposite.