A little-noticed bill that passed the Legislature this year and took effect July 1 is giving the governor more control over the myriad boards that regulate various occupations in Idaho, in response to a 2015 U.S. Supreme Court case, reports Idaho Falls attorney Steve Taggart. In an article in today’s Idaho Politics Weekly newsletter, Taggart writes that HB 482 cames in response to a case that originated in North Carolina, where the state board of dental examiners, dominated by dentists, barred non-dentists from offering teeth-whitening services. The Federal Trade Commission filed a complaint against the board for engaging in an unfair and anti-competitive method of restricting competition.

That then led to various arguments about state authority, competition and industry control of occupational boards. The upshot, Taggart reports, is that if the industry controls the board, it’s legally liable if it tries to restrict competition. In response, states are restructuring their occupational boards – there are 30 in Idaho, covering everything from doctors to cosmetologists, appraisers to nurses – to put states, rather than industries, more in control.

Taggart reports that under HB 482, occupational board members now serve at the pleasure of the governor, who can remove them at any time. Also, the governor can consider candidates for boards who aren’t specifically nominated by the profession being regulated. Some boards also saw specific changes; the Idaho Real Estate Commission, for example, which previously just had four real estate brokers as members, now also has a fifth member from the public “with an interest in the rights of consumers of real estate services.”

Jeanne Jackson-Heim, executive director of the Idaho Real Estate Commission, told Taggart most such commissions around the country have public members, and she doesn’t anticipate a major shift in the commission’s decision-making. You can read Taggart’s full article here at Idaho Politics Weekly, which is published under the auspices of Zions Bank.