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Restrictive licensing practices and regulatory barriers frequently prevent qualified and trained workers from participating in the workforce. This is true in Georgia as elsewhere, but a few bills passed in this year’s legislative session took aim at those barriers.
A license is essentially the government’s permission to work, and in any state concerned with growth, prosperity and freedom, it should be one of the last regulatory tools considered. The burden should fall on the government to demonstrate that a restriction addresses a genuine danger and that a less restrictive alternative is not plausibly available.
Senate Bill 553, sponsored by Sen. Bo Hatchett, R-Cornelia, reorganizes the state’s construction industry licensing system and establishes clearer paths to licensure for electricians, plumbers, conditioned-air contractors, low-voltage contractors and utility contractors. Among other provisions, it recognizes technical education and federally approved apprenticeships as qualifying routes for certain applicants and preserves avenues for reciprocity. This is particularly important now, as Georgia contractors report persistent difficulty in finding qualified craft workers, particularly as continued construction and infrastructure investment increases demand for skilled trades.
Senate Bill 207, sponsored by Sen. Brian Strickland, R-McDonough, addresses uncertainty for Georgians with criminal records. Under the new law, a person may ask a licensing authority for a predetermination of eligibility before completing the education, training or other requirements he or she must meet to obtain a license. If the authority plans to deny the application because of a criminal record, the applicant is entitled to an explanation and an opportunity for a hearing. The law also requires agencies to report data on applications, approvals and denials.
Public safety may justify excluding someone from a particular occupation in some circumstances. However, when a sentence is served and an offense bears little or no relationship to the occupation, it should not prevent an otherwise qualified person from earning a living in that field.
House Bill 1254, sponsored by Rep. Matt Reeves, R-Duluth, takes another step by consolidating or transferring several smaller licensing functions to the Secretary of State. While administrative consolidation might not be the first thing that comes to mind in debates over how to unleash economic potential, fragmented boards and slow approval processes still impose costs. The law dissolves boards overseeing several jobs and places their licensing functions within a single office while preserving industry expertise through advisory groups where appropriate. By allowing the Secretary of State’s office to process applications and routine decisions directly, the consolidation can reduce the need to wait for separate boards to meet and act.
Georgia still has plenty of room to improve. For example, the Archbridge Institute’s 2025 State Occupational Licensing Index ranks Georgia near the middle of the states for its overall licensing burden. The state imposes 117 occupational licenses, which is fewer than the national average, but restricts work through 158 licensing barriers, roughly matching the national average. While this diagnosis isn’t horribly bleak, it hardly befits the “best state for business,” label that Georgia lawmakers seek to maintain.
Read the full article at The Brunswick News.
Read the State Occupational Licensing Index here.
The Brunswick News
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