Experts seeking a recent formulation of a regulatory policy addressing the needs of small business could do well to check out a recent article by Ms Serpa, Rhode Island Democratic state representative and chairwoman of the House Committee on Small Business. "Regulatory reform isn’t the sexiest topic in state government, but for small-business owners it’s everything. I know this, many of my colleagues in the General Assembly know this, and it is my belief that Rhode Island is coming close to achieving tangible progress in streamlining our regulatory processes."
Ms Sherpa refers to a RI Office of Regulatory Reform paper entitled “Period 1 Regulatory Look Back Report” which takes stock of the current review of all legislation and formulates 10 key recommendations (summarized as follows):
•"Map the regulatory environment: Rhode Island should provide an up-to-date map of state-government organization so small-business owners aren’t lost as to where to find information about how to start a business, how to expand their businesses or simply how to stay in compliance with state guidelines.
•Reduce the number of statutory exemptions: More than 20 percent of reviewed regulations across 22 regulatory entities were exempt from the reform process because of either separation-of-powers considerations or the law’s definition of “small business.” The lack of clarity in the definition of “small business” poses a consistent challenge, and it’s one ORR recommends we tackle in the future.
•Improve accessibility to regulations: Small businesses reported needing outside professional help to navigate the 26,240 pages of regulation. The report aptly points out that those documents are the equivalent of 10.1 copies of “War and Peace.” To worsen matters, each regulatory entity uses a different template for writing regulations. The bottom line: We need to make this process more uniform.
•Rejoin separated regulation: Breaking down one regulation into separate regulations in the past has resulted in confusion about how to comply with basic guidelines. This must be rectified.
•Reform audit, inspection and enforcement processes: These practices have as much impact on small business as regulatory policy and need to be reviewed alongside regulatory reform.
•Promote lawmaker and small business participation in reform: Lawmakers should be involved in this process just as much as members of the business community should provide feedback. We are only in the first stage of recommendations. There needs to be more dialogue. I would even go one step further to suggest a presentation to the General Assembly on these ORR findings and recommendations so we can put a spotlight on these issues and deliberate on them effectively in future sessions.
•Support improved cost-benefit analysis: The state is always concerned with data quality, and we want to strive to ensure that it can accurately quantify basic regulatory statistics.
•Push regulatory reform efforts beyond current performance levels: Of the 179 regulations identified by entities and ORR as having a small-business impact, 26 were offered for amendment and repeal. We can do better. As we move forward with rigorous review, ORR will challenge our departments to find more areas of reform. A large part of our economic environment is dependent upon how quickly this state can turn around and streamline these processes for small businesses."
Ms Sherpa refers to a RI Office of Regulatory Reform paper entitled “Period 1 Regulatory Look Back Report” which takes stock of the current review of all legislation and formulates 10 key recommendations (summarized as follows):
•"Map the regulatory environment: Rhode Island should provide an up-to-date map of state-government organization so small-business owners aren’t lost as to where to find information about how to start a business, how to expand their businesses or simply how to stay in compliance with state guidelines.
•Reduce the number of statutory exemptions: More than 20 percent of reviewed regulations across 22 regulatory entities were exempt from the reform process because of either separation-of-powers considerations or the law’s definition of “small business.” The lack of clarity in the definition of “small business” poses a consistent challenge, and it’s one ORR recommends we tackle in the future.
•Improve accessibility to regulations: Small businesses reported needing outside professional help to navigate the 26,240 pages of regulation. The report aptly points out that those documents are the equivalent of 10.1 copies of “War and Peace.” To worsen matters, each regulatory entity uses a different template for writing regulations. The bottom line: We need to make this process more uniform.
•Rejoin separated regulation: Breaking down one regulation into separate regulations in the past has resulted in confusion about how to comply with basic guidelines. This must be rectified.
•Reform audit, inspection and enforcement processes: These practices have as much impact on small business as regulatory policy and need to be reviewed alongside regulatory reform.
•Promote lawmaker and small business participation in reform: Lawmakers should be involved in this process just as much as members of the business community should provide feedback. We are only in the first stage of recommendations. There needs to be more dialogue. I would even go one step further to suggest a presentation to the General Assembly on these ORR findings and recommendations so we can put a spotlight on these issues and deliberate on them effectively in future sessions.
•Support improved cost-benefit analysis: The state is always concerned with data quality, and we want to strive to ensure that it can accurately quantify basic regulatory statistics.
•Push regulatory reform efforts beyond current performance levels: Of the 179 regulations identified by entities and ORR as having a small-business impact, 26 were offered for amendment and repeal. We can do better. As we move forward with rigorous review, ORR will challenge our departments to find more areas of reform. A large part of our economic environment is dependent upon how quickly this state can turn around and streamline these processes for small businesses."
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