Streamlined licensing approach an improvement

Lots of businesses need to operate across the entire valley -- think plumbing and air-conditioning. Having spent all the advertising money necessary to bring in a customer call, you sure don't want to have to say, "Sorry, we're not licensed in North Las Vegas or Henderson."

So, seeking to stay in compliance, many a contractor finds himself maneuvering through multiple Byzantine municipal bureaucracies in an attempt to "get legal." And it's not easy.

"It's slow and drawn out. It's a hassle," says Todd Henderson of Red Rock Welding, who found himself having to acquire separate business licenses for Clark County, Las Vegas, North Las Vegas and Henderson. "They all have different rules."

Finally, some relief may be on the way. Legislation passed in the last legislative session established a pilot program requiring Clark County and its three largest cities to have a single, "multi-jurisdictional," license available by June 17, 2012. Boulder City is participating voluntarily.

"They were all for it," says state Sen. John Lee, D-North Las Vegas, who sponsored the measure -- and who runs a plumbing business. The entities were already studying a consolidation of business licensing, Sen. Lee reports, but his legislation gave them a deadline.

The plan is that a person will be able to go into the office of any of the participating jurisdictions, and there obtain a "multi-jurisdictional" license, explains Karen Duddleston, Las Vegas' business services manager. At that point, they'll be able to pick the entities where they want to be licensed, like choosing from a menu.

It will then be up to the cities and the county to direct the license fees and information to the proper jurisdictions -- a process that will be shaped over the next year, Ms. Duddleston says.

There are about 10,000 contractor licenses in Southern Nevada, which should provide a big enough pool that the system can be fully tested before adding other license types.

Next on the list, Ms. Duddleston hopes, will be other "mobile" businesses, such as delivery companies, florists and locksmiths, all of whom work across jurisdictional lines.

For the record, someone at least needs to ask -- if the goal is to make it easier for businesses to succeed, accrue capital and create more jobs -- why all these enterprises need to be "licensed," in the first place. If there's a right to work and earn a living, why does it now seem practically everyone needs to get a "license" to do so?

That said, surely one-stop shopping should be a vast improvement over the current odyssey. Sen. Lee once again deserves congratulations for bringing some common sense to the process.