Why the Texas roofers’ registration bill died
For greater than two years, Dallas lawyer Steven Badger has labored to regulate roofers in Texas. He talked to various parties, collected information, and helped write a proposed law that would have required typhoon-chasing roofers to sign in their call, cope with, and contact, like in different Gulf Coast states.
His hobby? He represents coverage corporations and learned approximately loads of North Texas sufferers who lost money to scammers. He noticed what The Watchdog has stated for more than a decade: Bad roofers and take-the-cash-and-run con men flourish in the open.
“I’m only a man who cares,” Badger says. “I’m no longer a baby-kisser. I’m now not a lobbyist. I’m only a man who’s visible several people ripped off, and it makes me sad.”
In some approaches, Badger, who is correctly named, was successful. His thoughts have been incorporated right into a roofers’ registration bill offered through kingdom Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, R-Southlake. In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, the bill made it all of the way to the full House for an energetic debate and a recorded vote, something that hasn’t taken place inside the many years I’ve watched roofer oversight payments flounder and fail.
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Steven Badger
But what took place on the House floor all through that debate and next vote shows why the roofing industry will preserve to go unregulated into the distant destiny.
Who’s to blame? Badger factors to 4 people who killed the bill. He’s naming names. And so am I.
Lone Scam State for roofing
When it comes to putting up-typhoon roofing maintenance, Texas is the Lone Scam State.
House Bill 2101 became laughably clean to comply with. It did not observe group participants at the roof, best to the corporation’s owner and whoever promoted the contract to a homeowner.
“No coverage requirement” for roofers, Badger says of the bill. “No education requirement. Just a simple registry. It was so minor. It wasn’t going to prevent all abuse, but whilst guys began ripping people off, we may want to put off their registration.”
The value for registration: $250. Cities and counties could withhold permits if a roofer weren’t registered.
It wasn’t a greater stressful license, a grimy phrase among confined-government Republicans who dominate the Legislature.
Foes
Who was towards it? Four human beings are plain ringleaders:
1. Frank Fuentes of the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He instructed me, “An accidental outcome would be to target small companies of whom a preponderance are Hispanic.
2. Carl Isett, a lobbyist for Texas Independent Roofing Contractors Association, a mysterious organization that doesn’t display records approximately its membership.
Isett told me he’s against government intervention in small businesses. “These are just guys on roofs looking to make a dwelling and feed their own family,” he stated.
Three. Jon Conner, the founder of the mysterious independent roofer’s group. He did not respond to an interview request.
Four. State Rep. Ramon Romero Jr., D-Fort Worth, described himself to me as “a 25-year contractor that is accomplished over 100 million greenbacks in a commercial enterprise” — however, not in roofing.
On the House ground, Romero turned into the front guy for the organization. Romero told me he preferred voluntary registration, however no longer mandatory as the bill required.
