Too many Mississippians need a government permission slip to earn an honest living. Licensing boards—often staffed by the very people who profit from less competition—decide who may braid hair, fix a leaky pipe, or open shop. The result isn’t “consumer protection.” It’s protectionism. Prices go up. Choices go down. And working-class families get squeezed into three bad options: pay more, do it themselves, or drift into the underground economy.
Mississippi licenses at least 118 occupations, touching nearly one-fifth of the workforce. Before a single dollar is earned, initial fees alone add up to more than $48 million, with another $13.5 million every year in renewals. Inside those gates, the nickel-and-diming continues; a commercial contractor can be out roughly $520 just to get started. If these hurdles consistently produced safer, better services, we could argue trade-offs. But they don’t. Licensing all too often restricts both consumer and worker choice without reliably improving quality, while pushing low-income residents toward fewer, costlier options. That’s not prosperity; that’s a barrier.
There is some progress. The 2017 Occupational Board Compliance Act gave the Legislature tools to rein in excess. We also peeled back plainly needless rules—freeing hair braiders from cosmetology mandates and scrapping licensing for casket sellers after a court fight. Those were the right moves. They should be the template, not the exception.
Now do the job completely:
- Publish the whole inventory—plain English, public, searchable. List every license, every requirement, every fee. Then benchmark against our neighbors. When we find outliers—niche licenses almost no one else requires—demand proof of a real, unmet health or safety risk. If that proof isn’t there, cut the license. Not next year. Now.
- Lock the front door on new licenses. Use a strict “sunrise” test: show evidence of actual harm, show why fraud/negligence law can’t address it, and show a clear cost-benefit case. If it’s duplicative or flimsy, the answer is no. The easiest mistake to fix is the one you never make.
- Prefer voluntary certification over mandatory licensing. Let independent groups signal quality. Let consumers decide. Keep the courthouse open for cheaters and bad actors. We already use certification in several roles—expand that model instead of multiplying boards and fees.
The core principle is simple and old-fashioned: government should guard against force and fraud, not ration opportunity. We don’t need committees deciding who can braid hair, sell a casket, or hang a shingle. We need clear rules against harm and open doors for anyone willing to work.
Mississippians understand this. Prosperity grows when free people serve willing customers—when the path into a trade is a straight line, not a maze of forms, fees, and insiders. If lawmakers want a fast, real win for ordinary people, start with transparency, sunrise reviews, and a wide turn toward voluntary certification. Tear down the moats and watch what Mississippians can build.
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