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	Subject - licensing and politics stedder Just recently (and for the past 30 years) there has been an attempt to license the county in which I live. I am a non licensed non union electrician doing my own inspected insured work for over 12 years and very proud of my record. I am FOR licensing but against the law going around this time, WAY too big a grey area. My question is, how do you stop people from doing shoddy , unsafe even dangerous work when exclusions include "homeowners are exempt", and how can there be a cut off of "if you have been doing competent work for 11 years" or "a person that has a license in such and such an area is grandfathered" (when there are so many different aspects). In the past there have been only two cities in the county needing licensing and allowed reciprocals, wouldn't this new setup reduce the stature and effectivness of these licensees? The fee would be $500 /year, just curious how much renewals are elsewhere? IMO if the inspectors were backed up by the local municipalities there shouldn't be a problem. Factor in modular homes built in some other state let alone under a completly different set of rules. How's it work in your town? kbsparky Are you by chance referring to Pennsylvania here lctrc789 Boy do I know how you feel here, I know you live in New York, and in Indiana we kind of have the same problem. The city of Indianapolis has the license requirements, No other counties except 2 others out of 92 require a licese. Any one who can wire a switch is called an electrican, the stae has been saying for years we need a common law to license all electricians. Why not, Plumbers have to have a state license and the city requires you to take a Block and Associates test Kind of tough. As far as inspectors in the city of Indianapolis they have self certification tags that means if you are licensed they do not have to inspect all jobs your license number and the self cert tag Oks the work and you are liable. As far as being Union, Non Union here it doesn't matter. All Union electricians are certified but not licensed and they of course can apply for a license as such. The hard part for many is this residnetial electricians (not to put them down) who can wire a home are called elctricians and the guys like me who can wire a home a building, a hospital and wire transformers and 3 phase and so on are called electricians. Many of the guys here are called electricians at 19 years old who can wire a home and the guys who are older and can wire anything damn near are called the same. As far as the licensing I say make them all take tests and require them so many years experince and have them stay up with current codes and the grandfather clause you are talking about has been here for years. It is hard to compete with guys who have less knowledge and never taken a course or test in their lives.... But as the old saying goes you really get what you pay for is so true. I have done numerous jobs re calls and Insurance work due to incompetent workers no grounding, improper grounding, wrong size wires, and to many wires in a box and so on because of lack of knowledge. I say good luck and keep up with what you know and maybe some day they will require all states to license their electricians. Alfred To whom it may concern Tennessee went thru a very same thing in the early 90's. Everybody was in business for themselves. Now it's much tougher, we still have a few violater though it's much smaller now. After a few houses burn and the new media get involved, maybe the situation will get better. Keep up the good work, time will heal most things. Thanks Alfred Johnson