Regulating the Regulators

Yesterday, Governor Kaine signed an executive order granting the governor authority to disapprove regulations and establishing the attorney general's participation in the regulatory review process. Free Enterprise Watch sees this as a good step forward. However, the executive order requires that regulations only have to be examined once in the governor's term. Successful businesses reflect on their operations more than once every four years- why shouldn’t the government?

This executive order builds on the success of former Attorney General Jerry Kilgore's Regulatory Reform Task Force. One recommendation of the Task Force was for the General Assembly to approve legislation to help streamline regulation for small business- called the Small Business Regulatory Reform and Flexibility Act. This law, which passed in 2005, requires state agencies, prior to promulgating new regulations, to assess the impact of compliance on small businesses, calculate administrative costs associated with the regulations and determine if a less intrusive alternative exists.

Why was this important? Since 97.7% of businesses in the Commonwealth are small businesses, their growth and retention is vital to Virginia's economy. Accordingly, it is important to ensure that small businesses are not overly burdened with regulations that do not recognize business realities.

Governor George Allen set the bar high when it comes to reforming Virginia's regulatory climate. After conducting a comprehensive review of all existing regulations to make sure they were needed and were the least burdensome way to accomplish their intended purpose, 70% of all of Virginia's regulations were either substantially amended or repealed. A more detailed analysis of his achievements can be found here.

To read more about Free Enterprise Watch's commitment to lessening the burden of state regulation on Virginia businesses, click
here.