BATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana is seen as having some of the most restrictive professional licensing requirements in the country, and talk of shrinking that list was high heading into the Legislature's regular session.
Why is Louisiana the only state in the nation that requires retail florists to pass a licensing exam? Should braiding hair professionally need a license? Does the state really need exams and licensing provisions for interior designers?
But supporters of stripping some licensing laws from the books are finding they'll have to chisel away slowly at the rules.
"You have a lot of people who are in the industries who say, 'Well, I had to do all this. All the people coming after me should have to do this.' I do understand that, but to me if something's bad policy, we shouldn't continue it just because we did it before," said Rep. Julie Emerson, the Carencro Republican spearheading legislative efforts to repeal some requirements.
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