Arizona Weed Control
Rissmiller v. Arizona Structural Pest Control Commission
Agency Helps Big Business Weed Out Competition
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The Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter entrepreneur Gary Rissmiller.
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Government shouldn’t use its power to help big business weed out competition. Yet that is exactly what Arizona’s Structural Pest Control Commission (SPCC) tried to do by enforcing regulations preventing small-scale landscapers and gardeners from competing with large pest control companies to eradicate weeds in the state.
Enter the Institute for Justice Arizona Chapter.
IJ-AZ’s attorneys came to the rescue of local entrepreneurs Gary Rissmiller and Larry Park—representing all Arizona small-scale gardening businesses against the tyrannical overreaching of the SPCC. Before IJ-AZ filed a lawsuit on behalf of Rissmiller and Park, the SPCC sought out and fined landscapers and gardeners using over-the-counter herbicides, like Roundup, who had not first obtained a government-issued license. The license requires 3,000 hours of training and hands-on experience over the preceding five years—a license that would take nearly 18 months to obtain if a gardener did nothing but spray weeds fulltime, 40 hours a week. Worse yet, to legally get that experience, a landscaper or gardener would have to quit working for himself and would have to work for his competition.
On September 28, 2005, IJ-AZ filed suit in Maricopa County Superior Court against the SPCC asking the court to protect the economic liberties of Arizona’s gardeners and landscape maintenance workers. The Arizona Legislature took notice, and during the 2006 legislative session Senator Barbara Leff worked with IJ-AZ to pass a bill re-instating an exemption from licensing for hard working businessmen like Rissmiller and Park. On May 8, 2006, the Arizona Governor signed the bill into law and IJ-AZ dismissed its lawsuit on September 27, 2006 after it went into effect.