Will that be a Viking or a Sub-Zero for that new kitchen? Granite counters or polished concrete? LED lights or incandescent?
Sen. Matt Claman has offered a bill creating yet another barrier to employment: He wants interior designers working in Alaska to be required to be licensed in Alaska through a board that now licenses architects and engineers.
According to Senate Bill 73, these interior designers would have their license overseen by a board. It’s not made clear in the bill if this is only applying to commercial interior design.
Unlike engineers and others who alter the structures of buildings, interior designers typically work in design centers of hardware stores, furniture stores, or often as independents who have business-to-business relationships with contractors. Some have had training and some even have associates or bachelors degrees in the field, which is all about aesthetics, safety, and functionality. Many come up through the trades, while others have related degrees, such as art history or even business.
The board that oversees engineers and architects would have authority over the qualifying, registration, and decertification of designers who pick curtains, bathroom fixtures, and bedroom ensembles.
Alaska does not currently require licensure or even offer registration to work as an interior designer and only a handful of states do require it for unsupervised commercial work, such as Louisiana, Florida, Nevada, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Florida is considering deregulating the field, and it was even mentioned in Gov. Ron DeSantis’ state of the state speech.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics says that the job description for interior designers is that they “make indoor spaces functional, safe, and beautiful by determining space requirements and selecting essential and decorative items, such as colors, lighting, and materials. They must be able to draw, read, and edit blueprints.”
The first hearing for the SB 73 will be in Senate Labor and Commerce Committee at 1:30 pm on Wednesday, April 12. It will be teleconferenced.
It’s unclear who is pushing the bill, which is meant to protect existing interior designers against those who might come into the profession by apprenticing or through their own gifts, but the American Society of Interior Design of Alaska is the likely suspect, as it hired veteran lobbyist David Parish to work on this bill last year.
Last week in New Mexico, a similar bill passed, requiring licenses for interior designers. It was signed into law by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham. The American Society of Interior Design got behind that bill and is pushing legislation across the country to fight the movement toward deregulation that has arisen and to support more regulations for interior designers in states like Alaska.
Senate Labor and Commerce members are Sens. Jesse Bjorkman, Click Bishop, Elvi Gray-Jackson, Kelly Merrick, and Forrest Dunbar.
