Study says Ohio unusually 'bossy' in telling businesses what to do

SANDUSKY — Ohio spends a lot of time and effort telling businesses what to do. That's the conclusion of a new study from the Mercatus Center in Washington, D.C., from scholars who say they have objective proof Ohio puts an unusually heavy burden of regulation on the backs of business. A pair at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in the Washington, D.C. area, James Broughel and Patrick McLaughlin, used software to study administrative codes in 46 states and the District of Columbia, counting the times words such as "shall" and "required" are used. (A few of the 50 states don't have publicly-accessible codes.)California, the nation's most-regulated state, has 395,000 regulatory restrictions, the two say. South Dakota is listed as the least-regulated state, with only 44,000 regulatory restrictions.Ohio comes in fourth place as one of the top five most regulated states, behind only California, New York and Illinois. Ohio has 246,852 regulatory restrictions, Broughel said, while the average state has 131,000. Ohio's administrative code has 15 million words. If you spent 40 hours a week reading it as a normal reading pace, it would take 21 weeks to read, he told the Register in a telephone interview.The Mercatus Center also has published a "snapshot" of Ohio regulations. The agency that has generated the most regulations is the Ohio lottery commission, which has 30,351 regulations."That was somewhat unusual," Broughel said.According to Mercatus, chemical manufacturing is the most heavily-regulated industry in Ohio.Ohio governors have been claiming for years that they've been slashing state regulations.During the eight-year John Kasich administration, his lieutenant governor, Mary Taylor, was in charge of Ohio's Common Sense Initiative, the official Ohio program for slashing red tape. The Common Sense Initiative is now run by Mike DeWine's lieutenant governor, Jon Husted.It's actually quite common for state governors to have programs for eliminating regulations, but often such programs don't do much to reduce the overall amount, Broughel said."Rules are added all the time even as other rules are being taken away," Broughel said. Agencies are always writing new rules, he said.Broughel believes, however, that Ohio may be poised to make actual progress in eliminating many state regulations.Ohio's latest two-year budget, which took effect July 1, contains a provision that when a state agency adds a new regulatory restriction, it must remove two others."This 'one-in, two-out' policy will be in place for the next four years and ought to bring some much-needed relief to Ohioans," Broughel wrote in an opinion piece published August 2 in the Wall Street Journal.The Trump administration also announced a policy of chopping two regulations for each new one, but made the new policy largely meaningless by exempting more than 90 percent of new federal regulations, Broughel said. Ohio's policy seems more genuine, he wrote.The Register asked Lt. Gov. Husted to comment on whether Ohio is over-regulated and if our state might be ready to make progress."Yes, we have too many regulations," Husted said.Husted said when he took over as lieutenant governor, he discovered the Common Sense Initiative had a backlog in dealing with regulations."We cleaned that up," he said.Husted said Broughel's analysis of why it's hard to reduce regulations is correct.Referring to state lawmakers, Husted said, "Every time they pass a bill, it says that the agency shall promulgate regulations."Husted said Ohio's new two for one rule "helps to create the right kind of focus on the issue" but added lawmakers keep passing laws that call for more rules. "You can't say do less but do more at the same time," he said.Husted said Ohio is acquiring a machine learning tool to go through Ohio's administrative code and locate regulations that duplicate each other or appear to be unnecessary. Each agency will be asked to review the apparently unneeded regulations, and then they will be sent to lawmakers, who will be asked to repeal them, Husted said."We will deliver them the opportunity to fulfill their goal," he said, referring to state lawmakers.Husted said he hopes to produce something by early next year."It's something the legislature will ultimately have to act on," Husted said.Why does an overabundance of regulations matter?Broughel, who has a Ph.D. in economics from George Mason, said economics literature makes it clear that over time, regulations slow economic growth, resulting in fewer jobs and less dynamism.Even if growth is slowed by a percentage point, over time "that will add up, due to the compounding nature of economic growth," Broughel said.Broughel also argues that legitimate health and safety rules are undermined when businesses and citizens have to cope with an overwhelming forest of rules."Legally, you have to comply with everything," he said.Husted said he agrees that "too many regulations cost too much time and money, and that's bad for business, but it's also bad for everybody.""Look, I don't want to repeal a regulation that would cause a health or environmental issue for somebody," he said.Some regulations clearly are needed, but there are cases in which regulations aren't needed or are used to keep out competition."We need to be selective but aggressive," he said.James Broughel, a senior research fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University.Jon Husted, Ohio's 66th lieutenant governor.