Agency Proposes Scrapping Seven State Licensing Boards

The state Department of Consumer Affairs proposed abolishing seven of its 32 licensing boards Thursday and deregulating 14 occupations or products.

The boards recommended for elimination regulate cemeteries, funeral directors, barbering and cosmetology, court reporters, interior design, landscape architects and tax preparers.

The announcement of the department’s recommendations to the Legislature--which must approve them before they become final--adds details to one part of Gov. Pete Wilson’s plan for “right-sizing government” by eliminating or trimming unnecessary government regulation.

The plan would retain the State Athletic Commission, Board of Accounting and Board of Registration for Geologists and Geophysicists, but scale back their duties.

Athletic Commission licensing of boxers would be retained, but licensing of fight announcers would be eliminated. Regulation of accountants, geologists and geophysicists would be reduced from a licensing to a certification program requiring proof of training rather than testing.

Products and services that would no longer be regulated include electronic repairs, water beds and feather and down products.

In some cases, many duties of the licensing boards targeted for elimination, including the cemetery and funeral boards, would be transferred to other agencies or reduced in scope.

Consumer Affairs Director Marjorie Berte said that the direct cuts proposed in her report would eliminate 30 state regulators and about $4 million in annual expenditures, but that the cost to the California economy of unnecessary regulations was “many times that amount.”

“The test is, if we did not already have these boards or commissions, would we want them today?” added State and Consumer Services Secretary Joanne Kozberg.

Berte said the recommendations are based on a review of 10 of the department’s 32 boards. The other 22 boards are to be reviewed over the next two years.