A public interest law firm is striking a blow for economic freedom in Maryland.
Virginia-based Institute for Justice represents five entrepreneurs who would like to overturn state restrictions on funeral home ownership.
The state is one of three in the country that prevents most entrepreneurs from entering the business. Why? State law requires funeral home owners to also be licensed funeral directors, which requires studying for two years and spending thousands of dollars. Of course, morticians must have proper skills, but why the owner? It?s a business. Chief executive officers of hospitals aren?t required to earn medical degrees.
The only other ways to own and operate a funeral home are to buy one of a few corporate licenses, which can fetch as much as $250,000 if they are for sale, or to be the spouse or legal executor of a funeral director who has died.
The restrictions mean less competition ? and higher prices. The average funeral home in Maryland takes in 30 percent more per year than the national average. And an IJ study shows that the average funeral in Maryland would cost $800 less if the law changed.
The average funeral costs $6,500 in the United States, according to the National Funeral Directors Association. Curiously, the Maryland State Funeral Directors Association does not track the average cost of funeral services in the state. We wonder if it isn?t because they don?t want to compare themselves to surrounding states.
Maryland law ensures that prices can only go up.
So it?s good news that last week a federal court in Baltimore denied the state?s attempt to dismiss the lawsuit challenging the law.
“We intend to prove that this law does nothing but protect cartel members from honest competition, and that the Constitution doesn?t allow Maryland to prevent people from working just to make cartel members rich,” IJ staff attorney Jeff Rowes said.
The institute represents entrepreneurs throughout the country on a wide range of issues. We can think of a number of restrictive practices in the state where their legal expertise could be directed and appreciated. Abolishing liquor license regulations in Baltimore City that prohibit new ones from being granted and forcing the Public Service Commission to grant new taxi licenses in the city are two areas that demand immediate attention. Such laws serve only to protect current license holders, not consumers, who must search longer for a beer and hail fruitlessly for a taxi ? for which a new license was last granted in 1946.
With death rates poised to pick up because of aging baby boomers, barring easy entry to the funeral home business will be an even bigger plus for those already in it.
U.S. District Judge Richard Bennett must overturn the law.
Maryland wants to be a state in which all compete on a level playing field.
That?s not currently the case.
