At Thursday’s Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce Rooster Booster Breakfast, we announced Governor Bevin has launched a new initiative entitled “Red Tape Reduction.” This initiative is an effort to attack the problem of excessive or unnecessary state government regulations.
The governor’s office reported more than 4,500 state regulations exist in our commonwealth. Only 15 to 20 percent of those regulations have ever been reviewed for effectiveness or ongoing need.
The program was modeled after the British Columbia Reform Model. Laura Jones from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business met with professional affiliated membership organizations including chamber executives from around the state explaining the success of the program. In response to the overwhelming success in British Columbia, the Canadian government actually passed a law stating that for every new regulation enacted, one must be removed.
In Greater Owensboro, we hear red tape concerns frequently from our members. In fact, in our last membership survey excessive regulation was the second most pressing concern and impediment to doing business right after workforce development. The members impacted are across the board. Small businesses, large corporations, utilities, education, agriculture — all sectors of our membership report this as an impediment.
Many regulations are necessary to protect the people of our Commonwealth and to promote economic stability. However, outdated or excessive unnecessarily regulations increase the cost of operating and doing business and ultimately hurt our community’s economic growth.
The official website of the initiative is http://redtapereduction.com. A key feature of the website is the “Report a Regulation” form where the public can identify burdensome regulations and offer suggestions for improvement. This is an excellent opportunity to be heard.
By Candance Brake President and CEO Greater Owensboro Chamber of Commerce