Counteracting Regulatory Burdens

Options for restraining and reducing state regulatory growth

Preview:

A state government has two categories of economic policy levers available to it: the first is fiscal policy, taxes and spending, and the second is regulatory policy.

Regulations impose both economic and political burdens and do so for no overall benefit. While their impact is hard to quantify and Minnesota seems better situated than some other states, there are indications that our regulatory burden is growing in some key areas. State legislators should act to restrain the further growth of the regulatory burden and, ideally, shrink it.

Key recommendations from the policy briefing include:

• Enact a pay-as-you-go provision whereby new regulatory requirements or costs must be offset by eliminating old ones
• Adopt sunset provisions for state regulations

A full copy of the policy briefing can be viewed here.