Senate Republican Office Oregon State Capitol 900 Court Street NE, S-323 Salem, Oregon 97301 Rule-making moratorium would help Oregon businesses Senator Chris Telfer, Guest Columnist Bend Bulletin March 25, 2011 Politicians are all asking what government can do to help Oregon businesses grow and succeed. With one in five Oregonians functionally unemployed and a record number of families on food stamps, there is a desperate need to get the economy back on track. But asking what government can do might be asking the wrong question. A better question may be, what should government stop doing? Let me give an example. There are 180 state agencies, boards and commissions, all with rule-making authority. In 2011, more than 11,000 pages of rules and regulations were printed in the Administrative Rules Compilation, a compendium of all existing agency rules. In the last two years alone, agencies took action 9,588 times to add, amend and delete administrative rules. That is 11,000 pages of bureaucratic requirements for a business to heed and 9,588 different regulatory changes to track, analyze and comply with. This morass of regulation all requires the time, attention and resources of Oregon’s businesses, especially the small businesses that are the backbone of the state’s economy. This regulatory burden threatens these businesses with death by a thousand cuts. Some of these regulations are innocuous enough. But many have deep and lasting implications for Oregon employers. For example, in September, the Department of Business and Consumer Services enacted a sudden 39 percent increase in the workers’ compensation premium assessment. The Department of Environmental Quality is working on new rules so strict they will make businesses unable to get a permit to simply put clean water back into the same water source from which they took it. And a barber who had been in business for more than 50 years in Portland had to quit cutting hair because agency rules allowed no flexibility or common sense! While some rules defy logic and common sense, some rules are helpful and necessary to implement important laws. We need some administrative rules to fulfill government functions. But the main point is this: With Oregon’s families struggling to find work and Oregon’s businesses failing to thrive, is now the right time to be adding regulation on top of regulation? Oregon Senate Republicans are calling for a moratorium on nonessential agency rule making. The governors of Arizona and Washington have recently taken similar steps by issuing executive orders. We should follow their lead. A timeout on rule making gives businesses the chance to focus on growing, succeeding and creating jobs. It means businesses can worry less about bureaucratic reports and new requirements. It also would free up a cash-strapped state government to dedicate manpower and resources to meeting essential needs, rather than writing new rules. Naturally, those who support the bureaucracy will paint this as a “simplistic idea” and will attempt to argue that a moratorium will hinder rules that could help businesses. That is why a moratorium would include an exception process to allow for rules that can spur the economy. With the legislature in session, the appropriate policy committee can temporarily serve as a clearinghouse for any proposed rules. If an agency can make the case for the economic necessity of a rule, then the legislature can allow an exception to the moratorium. This type of legislative approval process for new rules should become a permanent system of check and balance. The truth is that numerous complex rules have merely served as an excuse to hire more and more state workers while creating a culture of hostility between government and business. A two-year moratorium on new rules and a new rule-making approval process would allow for a paradigm shift in the relationship between Oregon’s government and business. It would give Oregon’s employers a chance to grow and Oregon families a chance to get back on the job. State Sen. Chris Telfer lives in Bend.
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