Auditor recommends staggered extensions for six licensing boards; committee hears report on SB 211

Senate Bill 211, introduced Feb. 17 by Senator Jesse Bjorkman, would extend the sunset dates for six professional licensing boards. The committee heard a high-level summary from Legislative Auditor Chris Curtis, who presented sunset-audit findings and recommendations for each board.

Curtis recommended an eight-year extension for the Board of Marital and Family Therapy and the Board of Social Work Examiners, six-year extensions for the Board of Certified Real Estate Appraisers and the Board of Professional Counselors, a five-year extension for the Board of Psychologists and a four-year extension for the Real Estate Commission. The auditor identified common issues across boards, including long-term vacancies in some board positions, overdue investigative case backlogs, insufficient board fees relative to regulatory costs and procedural gaps that delayed fee approvals.

The audit recommended administrative remedies such as improving recruitment for board seats, adjusting fee-request procedures so Division staff forward fee requests to the Office of Management and Budget, and addressing federal appraisal-subcommittee findings for real-estate appraisers. The report also recommended commissioners and policymakers consider statutory changes where federal oversight requires them.

Committee members thanked the auditor and the sponsor and asked staff to work with the executive branch on responses to audit recommendations. The committee set SB 211 aside for future consideration; no roll-call vote or final committee report is recorded in the transcript.