Letter to the Ohio House of Representatives Regarding Senate Bill 293

To: Members of the Ohio House of Representatives

From: Americans for Tax Reform

Speaker Smith, and Members of the Ohio House of Representatives,

I write on behalf of Americans for Tax Reform, and our allies across Ohio, in support of Senate Bill 293, a pro-growth, and pro-job creator measure which would bring needed regulatory reform to the state.

We applaud Senators Peterson and McColley for sponsoring the bill and Senate President Obhof for his support. This commonsense measure now awaits your consideration in the House.

SB 293 would require all state agencies to reduce their respective regulatory restrictions by thirty percent. To help meet this requirement, regulatory agencies will have to repeal two regulations for every new regulation.

Additionally, SB 293 would require the creation of a database managed by the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review. The creation of said database would create transparency and clarity regarding the regulatory burden.

This reform would spur Ohio’s lagging economy and create jobs throughout the state. Research from Ana Maria Zarate Moreno at the Regulatory Studies Center of George Washington University indicates that regulation often stifles entrepreneurship and innovation. Regulation is especially harmful to small businesses who often do not have the resources to comply with a complex web of codes and requirements.

Ohio possesses one of the heaviest regulatory burdens in the nation. A study by the Mercatus Center indicated that there are 246,852 regulations in the 2018 Ohio Administrative Code. This figure places Ohio as the state with the third-most regulations. The only states with more are regulatory behemoths Illinois and New York.

Further, passing this legislation would make Ohio a leader in reducing burdensome regulations, and pro-free market reform. To this point, ATR has tracked only Texas as having passed this brand of regulatory reform, and SB 293 is arguably more comprehensive.

I urge you to pass SB 293, and send a message to employers and site selectors that if they are looking for certainty that regulatory costs will not rise, Ohio is the place to do business, create jobs, and invest.

Please look to ATR as a resource on fiscal and economic policy issues. For questions, please contact State Projects Director Doug Kellogg at [email protected].

Sincerely,

Grover Norquist, President
Americans for Tax Reform