Governor Signs Bill for Better Hair
GOVERNOR SIGNS SHAMPOOER PROTECTION ACT, HIGHLIGHTS OTHER WACKY REGULATIONS
Columbia, S.C. - May 14, 2008 - South Carolina took one giant step toward cleaner, shinier, healthier hair today with Governor Mark Sanford’s signature of H.3803, a new law removing the legal requirement for shampooers to receive the same state-mandated 1,500 hours of training that cosmetologists receive.
Unfortunately, the bill does nothing to address the fact that state law requires 1,500 hours of training to be a cosmetologist - almost four times the amount of state-required training to become a police officer - and just one of a number of examples of overregulation by state government that Governor Sanford highlighted during the news conference.
“While we’re having some fun with this bill today, it does raise a serious issue about overregulation in South Carolina, which in a lot of cases is more about protecting the profits of people in a particular industry rather than protecting the consumer,” Gov. Sanford. “Other times, laws are outdated or just plain silly. But the bottom line is that we need to take a serious look at places where we can peel back unnecessary government interference, and we need to do it in a way that takes as little time away from more pressing issues as possible.”
A Top 10 List of such laws and proposals follows...
Top 10 Crazy Laws or Proposals - Whatever happened to common sense?
1. State law requires an individual to complete 1,500 hours of instruction to become a cosmetologist. It takes more hours of licensing to become a cosmetologist in SC than it does to become a police officer (396 hours) or carry a concealed weapon (8 hours).
2. Caskets and Stones, a retail funeral store in Greenwood, submitted their license application, paid their fee, were scheduled to go before the Board of Funeral Directors, and were told they could open. But then the Board gave them a “cease and desist” order - essentially telling them to stop selling caskets. The Board fined them $1,500 for “opening before their Board appointment.” They had to pay it before they could get their license.
3. Fortune Tellers are required to obtain a special permit in order to operate in South Carolina.
4. A proposed bill would require high school football and basketball playoff games to have replay for officials to use during these games.
5. Barbering schools are required by law to have at least ten instructional chairs -and those chairs are required by law to be upholstered and finished exactly the same way.
6. In 2003, a bill was introduced that would have required all drinking straws in South Carolina be sold in individual wrappers. The bill almost led to a fist fight on the House floor.
7. The fourth Friday in October in each year is designated by law in public schools as Frances Willard Day, and each public school is required “to prepare and render a suitable program on the day to the end that the children of the state may be taught the evils of intemperance.”
8. Circuses cannot exceed 48 hours at one place in any one year.
9. If a menu or advertisement states “frozen dessert,” it must correctly state the specific frozen dessert that is offered for sale so as not to mislead the consumer.
10. Musical instruments are not allowed to be sold on Sunday.