Do You Have a License for That Bouquet?

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Louisiana is the only state in the union that requires florists to pass a licensing exam before they can make and sell flower arrangements. And the local florist is but a poster child for Louisiana’s extensive licensing laws, which have proved particularly resistant to reform.

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Since becoming governor, Mr. Edwards has continued to highlight his conservative sympathies, including pro-gun and antiabortion stances. This spring, trying to burnish his free-market credentials, he backed a legislative push to do away with the florist exam. This could have been a first step toward broader reforms of the state’s licensing practices. Groups that usually butt heads with Mr. Edwards, such as the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry, cheered the prospect.

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Julie Emerson, the Republican state representative who wrote a bill to abolish the test, argued that consumers can quickly weed out bad florists: “That’s how competition and the free market works.” But a Senate panel killed Ms. Emerson’s bill in May after hearing objections from officials at the state Agriculture Department. It runs the licensing program, meaning its bureaucrats would have less to do without floral licenses to dole out.

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Critics of licensing have scored a victory on another front, however. Confronted by a lawsuit, Louisiana’s Board of Cosmetology dropped many of its requirements this spring for practitioners of a hair-removal technique known as eyebrow threading. The state had required eyebrow threaders to take 750 hours of beauty-school courses and three exams, at a cost of $6,000 to $13,000. The Institute for Justice, the libertarian nonprofit behind the lawsuit, agreed to drop the case after regulators backed off. Now eyebrow threaders need to pass one test and obtain a permit. Total cost: $50.

The path to fixing Louisiana’s burdensome licensing requirements, then, seems to run through the courts, not the GOP Legislature. Which is why in this conservative state, even a modest spray of daisies still must be government-approved.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/do-you-have-a-license-for-that-bouquet-1535147773 (paid subscription)