More Connecticut license fees

brendonv

brendonv

New member
Location
CT
What do you CT guys think about the new latest fee us licensed arborists will have to be paying annually?

Not only do they not enforce the current laws with our renewal, and testing money, they wack the legit licensed arborists with another $250 fee.

I should just drop my license, they dont enforce the arborist law anyways.

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For those who do not know in CT by law you need a license to do anything to a tree besides cut it down. Its a pretty tough test process. They scare you with a $2500 per day fine if your caught doing arboriculture without it. Every year at the meetings the crowd asks how many fines were given. Every year it seems to be none. They cry no funding to pay for an officer, so what do we pay the license fees for? I know certain county's an officer can patrol that would pay his salary for months if he just worked a day writing fines.
 
CTPA puts on one heck of a great comp. I can only imagine your frustration with the lack of enforcement. Many municipalities that I work in Westchester County, NY. require permits for tree removals. This program seams to be well enforced as I've had officials ask to see the permit. Why couldn't these same officials be used to enforce CT. law? The programs could then be funded by removal permits and fines.
 
right along the same lines, crane ops are required to be licensed in ct. you couldn't get the state crane inspector (a full time excellant paying job with tons of perks) to check licenses on an out of state company working in ct. if your life depended on it. (he is always too busy to come out in a timely fashion). however as soon as there is a reportable accident he is on scene writing up fines and summons. (revenue for the state but nothing being done to prevent the accident by some of these jackwagons) sorry guys-had to get it out!
 
Brendon, I actually dropped my CTPA membership because I felt that they were not doing enough to help us. I've currently got 5 CEU's and my license doesn't expire until what? 2017? I'm gonna wait and see what happens with the state before I spend any more money / effort.

Tom, a few months back I was able to get in touch with Elliot on a Saturday thanks to a mutual friend of ours. He was not able to get there himself, but I do know that he sent a trooper out to investigate.
 
Its a state fee, matt.

They are saying if you practice arboriculture your going tl be payong this, just like i f you apply pesticides.

Guess im just a tree removal company.
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CTPA members:

House Bill 6538 has passed the legislature and was signed into law by the Governor this past Friday, June 21. This bill (now Public Act 13-203) has several features that will be of interest to people involved in tree care in Connecticut.

1) it will require all tree care businesses doing arboriculture to register as 'arborist businesses' with DEEP. A very similar provision already exists for those tree care companies applying pesticides - this bill extends the business registration to all tree care companies, except those not doing arboriculture. There will be a $240 fee for the annual registration and it also calls for certain record-keeping requirements, along the need to send to DEEP a list of those arborists working for the company.

2) It brings the renewal of the arborist license in line with the renewal of the other pesticide supervisory licenses. The good news in this regards is that, if you have more than one license, you will only have to pay a single $285 fee. The bad news is, if you only have an arborist license, your renewal fee will go up to $285 from the current $190. The testing fee for the arborist license exam will also go up, to $200. For new licensee's, the fee for renewal can be pro-rated if it is less than 5 years.

3) The third part of the bill establishes a qualification standard for tree wardens. In order to be a tree warden, an individual will have to have completed some basic coursework - most likely that offered through the Tree Wardens Association of Connecticut - or be a licensed arborist. In a town where the tree warden does not meet these standards, then the tree warden is still OK if he or she has a deputy that meets the standard.

The effective date of the legislation is October 1. Licensed arborists can expect to hear from DEEP Pesticides by mail this summer regarding the arborist business registration. More details will be included in the upcoming CTPA newsletter.
 
Brendon, I understand what it says. I was pissed about this earlier in the year when they were proposing it. Sadly the day that it was open for public discussion we had a nice snow storm and I got stuck in a truck plowing.

I dropped the CTPA membership because I no longer agree with the way they are supposed to be working for us. My arguement to them and the DEC was that I had no objections to higher fees, exponentially so, or more strict regulation such as this if they actually intended to use the monies to enforce laws that have been on the books for DECADES. However when I call up the DEC office directly to turn in one of these low life SOB's, provide them with all the information I can possibly come up with... and they do NOTHING, it kind of sucks.
 
Classic government scam. The fee is low enough that it's better to just pay it and forget about it to avoid the headache, but it doesn't actually provide you a benefit.

I hate that crap.

They got you beat on this one. It would take a civil uprising of all your colleagues. But 90% of them won't do it. You're screwed.
 
Brendon, I forgot to mention, though slightly off topic. I was working in Ridgefield last week on the side of the road. We were using the winch and backhoe to bring a few trees up to the road when I got a visit from the town. They expect us to put up a $500 bond any time that we work off the curb. There is also a $50 filing fee. More government money grabs.
 
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