February 2010

Letters needed to stop title law from being reinstated

Yesterday, I testified in opposition to HB 5138 at the Joint Committee for General Law hearing in Hartford, CT. I have to be honest, I went to the hearing with little hope of stopping this bill, because so few designers responded to my request to attend.   I thought, at best, we'd at least put CCID on notice if they even think about expanding the title law into a practice law, we would be right there breathing down their necks to stop them.

 

However. . . I am pleased to report on the following:

• The proponents had even fewer in attendance than we did, and only two people testified in support -- and neither testimony was very effective or offered any substantive reasons for passing the amendment or sustaining the law;
• One legislator said she'd received more emails about this bill than any other;
• With the exception of Co-Chair Colapietro who [wrongly] insisted that they HAD to make the law constitutional again, most of the committee members appeared to be interested in our objections;
• Commissioner of Consumer Protection Farrell testified that the law had never really been enforced -- even before the lawsuit.  [So why even have it?]
• We actually have a decent shot at getting this law removed...depending entirely on YOUR follow up.

Testimonies were limited to three minutes (they even used a kitchen timer!) At the conclusion of my testimony, several committee members grilled me with questions.  That is not necessarily a bad thing -- it allowed me an additional opportunity to offer information I had not been able to squeeze in.  Unlike some of the hearings I've testified at, the questions were (mostly) presented in a direct and sincere manner, and at least on the surface, they seemed intent on understanding the opposition. 

 

The most important thing gleaned from the day actually came after the hearing, when we learned that not only can the Joint Committee on General Law remove the language to amend and reinstate the title act from the bill, which would continue to render the law unenforceable, but they have the power to...

 repeal the interior design title act

...in its entirety and remove it from the books!

 

Do you want to ensure that this title law will not rear its ugly head again? 

 

Do you want to stop the practice act that the ASID CT Chapter talked about at their legislation meeting last week?

 

Then YOU must help us make that happen!  The Committee wants to hear from THEIR CONSTITUENTS, not from me again!

 

ACTION NOW...

 

Please take a minute and send a note to the Committee asking them to REPEAL the interior design title act.  This is new information, so even if you wrote to them asking them to reject the amendment, you need to write to them again.

 

Repeal of CT's law would not only be a victory for CT designers, but could very well pave the way for other states to do the same. 

 

Please send a copy of your email/letter to the committee, or a note stating that you've sent one, to pmorrow@IDPCinfo.org. so that we can track how many letters they are getting.

 

Click here for Committee contact information.

Click here for sample letter.