Wednesday, October 22, 2014

"Thanks to a new California law, honest people trying to scrape by doing repair or construction work now face greater barriers to feeding their families." The law would make even the "most hardened Craigslist repair guy tremble."

On punishing plumbers - Ethan Blevins/Pacific Legal Foundation

In the midst of a struggling economy, California has decided to crack down on the nefarious handymen that you hire to fix your stuff. Thanks to a new California law, honest people trying to scrape by doing repair or construction work now face greater barriers to feeding their families.

California has long required costly licenses for construction contractors. For decades, the “Joint Enforcement Strike Force” (a group that sounds more like a legion of stormtroopers than a gaggle of nosy bureaucrats) has been “protecting” consumers from choosing who they want to hire. But the large contractors who might have to compete against unlicensed scallywags have asked the California government to do more. The state responded with a law that will make the most hardened Craigslist repair guy tremble.

Under this new law, the Joint Enforcement Strike Force will now have “full access to all places of labor” to check that contractors are licensed to do honest work. The new law also subjects unlicensed evildoers to criminal prosecution. As for the repeat offender who continues to enter into voluntary exchanges with abandon, a second offense will result in at least a $5000 fine and ninety days in jail. What else were California prisons going to do with all of that empty space, anyway? And Californians won’t find many cheap offers to fix stuff cluttering Craigslist anymore, because it’s now a crime for anyone to “advertise for construction or work of improvement unless that person holds a valid license.” But consumers won’t be accomplices in the crime of earning a living. Instead, if you hire the friendly neighborhood handyman to fix a leaky roof, you may be a “victim of crime” entitled to restitution for your “economic loss....”