'Bad actors' bill fails again

Lobbyist Ken Burgess said the state bill intended to create protections against unscrupulous contractors won’t be moving on. 

As an advocate for the Idaho Home Builders Association, Burgess said that House Bill 768 made more progress than a similar bill last year, but the Legislature isn’t further considering the 2026 version.

“The challenge we have with the Legislature and even the governor’s office, for that matter, is they view any kind of regulation as a barrier to entry.” Burgess said. “We had a hard time convincing them that this is more of a consumer protection issue than it was about regulation.” 

The association wanted to require additional information on Idaho’s Contractor registration application so the Contractor Board could more easily track contractors with complaints against them.

However, lobbying efforts educated more Idaho residents and lawmakers about why builders said more consumer protections are necessary.

Jessica Cargile, president of the North Idaho Building Contractors Association, said they have been tracking a "dramatic uptick" of consumer complaints. 

Watching things play out during this year’s legislative session, she has been more encouraged to see the needle move toward expanding awareness. 

“More consumer awareness can help bring this issue to the forefront and allow legislation to realize how very important it is to protect our home buyers and have contractor accountability for our state,” Cargile said. 

There were 485 contractor complaints registered in fiscal year 2025 through the Division of Occupational and Professional Licenses, more than any other state licensing board. 

“We are hopeful that a concrete solution that works on all fronts is forthcoming soon,” Cargile said. “At a local level, we will continue to educate our membership and the public on the issue and support further progression of statewide dialogues to move the issue forward.”    

Burgess said that throughout the 2026 legislative attempt to fully realize the Contractor Consumer Protection Act, more and more people reached out to him to share their stories. 

“We will come back at it again next year,” Burgess said. 

There are 21,000 names on the contractor list in Idaho. 

“Ninety-nine percent of them are great people and do a good job, but the way the statute is leaves that door cracked open for bad actor scam artists," Burgess said. "Our goal is to do some policing of that."