FRANKFORT – Easing a shortage of licensed electricians across Kentucky is a goal of
a bill approved today by the Senate Committee on Licensing, Occupations and
Administrative Regulations.
Known as Senate Bill 78, the legislation would create a provisional electrician
license for people with a minimum of six years of experience in the trade. The
provisional license holder would then have two years to pass a state exam and get a
regular license. The provisional license would also expire after two years and would
be nonrenewable.
Electrician Mark Gary of Hopkinsville testified about the difficulty of hiring
licensed electricians. He said Kentucky has 2,220 licensed electricians and 9,117 of
the more experienced master electricians as of July of last year. That is a less
than half the number Kentucky had just 14 years ago.
“Having that provisional license would create some immediate relief for folks, like
Mark and others, who are struggling to find adequate numbers of staff to do their
work,” said bill sponsor Sen. Whitney Westerfield, R-Hopkinsville.
Steve Willinghurst, who trains electricians in Kentucky, was one of three people who
testified in opposition to SB 78.
“Having been a training director for 20 years, I have not seen apprentices with two
years of experience … qualified to take an exam for an electrical license,” he
said.
Westerfield testified that he wouldn’t have sponsored the bill if he did not think
there was a legitimate need for the legislation.
Committee Chairman Sen. John Schickel, R-Union, said an interim joint committee he
co-chaired also heard testimony last summer in Georgetown on the shortage of
electricians.
“There has been a lot of hard work put in on this, a lot of input from all sides,”
Schickel said. “This is the first step … but I want to thank the bill sponsor, and
for those on both sides of this issue, for working so hard.
“There is one thing we cannot debate. I hear it every day. There is a shortage of
all the skilled trades.”
SB 78 now goes to the full Senate for further consideration.