Contractors scramble to register under law

BOISE – A last-minute surge in applicants yielded more than 12,000 building contractors – 5,000 during the last four days of the year – attempting to register under Idaho’s new contractor registration law.

“The mailman was not happy with us,” Rayola Jacobson, chief of the state’s Bureau of Occupational Licenses, said Thursday after her presentation to the House Business Committee. “He kept bringing them in in tubs and glaring.”

Jacobson said she wasn’t sure how many contractors work in Idaho, but past estimates put the number around 17,000.

The Legislature passed the law last year after decades of debate. All neighboring states require contractors to register, and some worried that Idaho, because of its lack of registration requirements, was becoming a magnet for unskilled contractors doing shoddy work.

All building contractors now must register annually, carry liability insurance of at least $300,000, provide proof they’re in compliance with worker’s compensation laws and report whether they’ve ever lost the right to practice construction in any state.

The initial registration fee is $30, with annual renewals at $25.

Idahoans were slow to respond to the new law. Only about 1,000 had begun the registration process at the end of October. The number quickly swelled as the Jan. 1 deadline approached.

About 7,780 contractors have completed the registration process and more than 3,500 are in the works, Jacobson said. Another 1,500 applications are complete and awaiting approval from the State Contractor Registration Board.

The spike in applications as the year ended created a backlog that the bureau plans to resolve before Feb. 1, Jacobson said.

The only money spent by the state to implement the new law went toward the production of more than 55,000 informational brochures, she said. In addition, contractor associations and others held informational meetings across the state.

Those efforts paid off, Jacobson said, noting that many organizations such as banks will no longer work with unregistered contractors.

“The large rock that dropped into the small pond has dissipated to the event that now it will be general contractors saying, ‘We won’t hire you if you’re not registered,’ ” she said. “We’re seeing quite a bit of that, and that’s their prerogative. It has nothing to do with the law, but it’s bringing a lot of very nice folks to our door.”

Rep. Bob Nonini, R-Coeur d’Alene, asked why so many of his constituents report varying rates when obtaining liability insurance.

Jacobson said rates depend on the applicant’s credit and the number of claims that have been filed against him or her, and that the bureau encourages applicants to “do a little shopping around.”

“I think if they do, they’ll find comparable rates and are able to afford it,” she said.

Committee Chairman Rep. Max Black, R-Boise, said he’s spoken with many people opposed to the new law who warm up to it once they know the intentions. He cited a group of about 50 contractors that had such a reaction during a meeting last year.

“It was very positive after we talked about it and they asked the questions,” Black said. “Their hostility just evaporated.”