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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]As the owner of a small business start-up (approx. two years old), I also disagree with Ed Gillespie's ideas of what's discouraging new business formation. Local taxes, which he harps on a lot, are pretty trivial for me. The bigger issue is licensing and regulation, Virginia is full of all kinds of protectionist regulation designed to discourage new competitors from entering certain industries. Even though I'm based in Virginia, it's easier for me to do many kinds of work for clients in Maryland, and I can't swear I won't eventually relocate my business there.[/quote]

An actually thoughtful response. What kind of regulations?  I’m an attorney and had to re-sit for the Bar when we moved here. 15 years out of law school. There is no practitioners exam option, and VA does not have reciprocity with neighboring jurisdictions. So I can see this. But what are you thinking of?[/quote]

One big area is anything having to do with home improvement. If you're doing anything that could remotely be construed as making a permanent change to a home, even painting walls or hanging a picture on a wall, you're subject to the contractor's license requirements for jobs over $1,000. In order to get that license, you need, among other things, a currently licensed contractor who will sign off on an experience verification form that they've witnessed your work in the home improvement area over a period of at least two years and that your work is up to professional standards. It doesn't matter if you have years of experience doing your own home improvement work, are willing to take all of the licensing exams required by Virginia, etc., you can't get the license unless you've worked for a licensed contractor who's willing to sign off on your form (or know someone willing to lie for you). It makes it very difficult for contractors to open their own businesses legitimately, because there's no way around the experience verification, and how many contractors do you think are willing to sign off on the form for their employees so that their employees can do off and open their own competing businesses?

It gets ever more absurd when you get into how that $1,000 value is calculated. The value calculation doesn't just apply to the value of the labor provided and whatever's permanently changed/attached to the structure, it includes everything involved in the project, which makes it rather arbitrary in how it applies. If you as a homeowner already own a bunch of artwork you want hung, you could hire a random person off the street with no experience who charges $50 per piece to install 19 items in your house, putting 19+ holes into your walls and potentially hitting all kinds of things in your walls and creating all kinds of safety hazards, and Virginia is totally okay with that person not being licensed. If you're an art dealer, though, and you want to offer picture hanging as part of your services, then the value of the artwork itself is included in the calculation of the job value, and a single piece hung with a single fastener for $50 in labor will require a license if the artwork is valued at $950 or more, even though someone could take that artwork off the wall tomorrow without affecting the structure at all. Also, as an art dealer you couldn't offer the service by subcontracting out to a licensed contractor to do the installation, you have to hold the license yourself. It doesn't matter that you're never going to pick up a tool and you'll subcontract everything out to a licensed contractor for installation, you can't offer installation services unless you have two year's experience supervised by the contract a contractor (or someone willing to lie on the form for you). It would make more sense if the project value were based on the portion of the project that actually made permanent changes, but that would let a lot more people enter into trades that make truly minimal changes to the house itself in the course of other work, which would take work away from existing licensed contractors.[/quote]

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