Initiative Measure No. 1029

The full text is here (pdf).

Basically, this would require, in the words of the summary “long-term care workers to be certified as home care aides”. It basically establishes a set of education and training requirements and requires that these workers be registered by the state and licensed.

I am fundamentally opposed at a very basic level to the government licensing ANYTHING. (And yes, that probably even includes drivers.) It is just plain none of the government’s business to keep track of such things, or to set requirements. This is not to say that it is not good for such workers to have training, background checks, etc. It is just to say that I do not believe this should be government’s job.

There are various private solutions for this. Government does NOT need to be involved.

It needs to be the responsibility of those hiring for these sorts of workers to check qualifications to whatever degree they deem necessary (or not). And of course government should be involved if there is fraud or mistreatment or the like. But making sure that workers get some sort of mandatory training and then providing a license and keeping a big registry of such people? No thanks. Much too big brother for me.

There can also be plenty of room for private providers of certifications that would gain reputations and be looked for by those doing hiring. But such things need to be voluntary, not mandated by law… both for the person looking to do work, and the person or organization looking to hire them.

Therefore, my vote here is:

NO

Therefore