§ 202-b. Regulatory flexibility for small businesses. 1. In developing
a rule, the agency shall consider utilizing approaches that will
accomplish the objectives of applicable statutes while minimizing any
adverse economic impact of the rule on small businesses and local
governments. Consistent with the objectives of applicable statutes, the
agency shall consider such approaches as:

(a) the establishment of differing compliance or reporting
requirements or timetables that take into account the resources
available to small businesses and local governments or the time needed
by small businesses or local governments to come into compliance with
the rule;

(b) the use of performance rather than design standards; and

(c) an exemption from coverage by the rule, or by any part thereof,
for small businesses and local governments so long as the public health,
safety or general welfare is not endangered.

1-a. In developing a rule for which a regulatory flexibility analysis
is required and which involves the establishment or modification of a
violation or of penalties associated with a violation, the agency shall:
(a) include a cure period or other opportunity for ameliorative action,
the successful completion of which will prevent the imposition of
penalties on the party or parties subject to enforcement; or (b) include
in the regulatory flexibility analysis an explanation of why no such
cure period was included in the rule.

2. In proposing a rule for adoption or in adopting a rule on an
emergency basis, the agency shall issue a regulatory flexibility
analysis regarding the rule being proposed for adoption or the emergency
rule being adopted. A copy of such analysis and any finding, and reasons
for such finding, pursuant to subdivision three of this section, shall
be submitted to the governor, the temporary president of the senate, the
speaker of the assembly, the office of business permits and regulatory
assistance and the administrative regulations review commission at the
time such analysis is submitted to the secretary of state for
publication and, upon written request, a copy shall be sent to any other
person. Each regulatory flexibility analysis shall contain:

(a) a description of the types and an estimate of the number of small
businesses and local governments to which the rule will apply;

(b) a description of (i) the reporting, recordkeeping and other
compliance requirements of the rule, and (ii) the kinds of professional
services that a small business or local government is likely to need in
order to comply with such requirements;

(c) an estimate of the initial capital costs and an estimate of the
annual cost of complying with the rule, with an indication of any likely
variation in such costs for small businesses or local governments of
different types and of differing sizes;

(d) an assessment of the economic and technological feasibility of
compliance with such rule by small businesses and local governments;

(e) an indication of how the rule is designed to minimize any adverse
economic impact of such rule on small businesses and local governments,
including information regarding whether the approaches suggested in
subdivision one of this section or other similar approaches were
considered; and

(f) a statement indicating how the agency complied with subdivision
six of this section.

3. (a) This section shall not apply to any rule defined in
subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a) of subdivision two of section one
hundred two of this chapter, nor shall it apply to any rule which does
not impose an adverse economic impact on small businesses or local
governments and which the agency finds would not impose reporting,
recordkeeping or other compliance requirements on small businesses or
local governments. The agency's finding and the reasons upon which the
finding was made, including what measures the agency took to ascertain
that the rule would not impose such compliance requirements, or adverse
economic impact on small businesses or local governments, shall be
included in the rule making notice as required by section two hundred
two of this chapter.

(b) A rule determined by an agency to be a consensus rule and proposed
pursuant to subparagraph (i) of paragraph (b) of subdivision one of
section two hundred two of this article shall be exempt from the
requirements of this section.

4. In order to avoid duplicative action, an agency may consider a
series of closely related rules as one rule for the purpose of complying
with subdivision two of this section.

5. In complying with the provisions of subdivision two of this
section, an agency may provide either a quantifiable or numerical
description of the effects of a rule or more general descriptive
statements if quantification is not practicable or reliable.

6. When any rule is proposed for which a regulatory flexibility
analysis is required, the agency shall assure that it has actively
solicited the participation of small businesses and local governments in
the rule making through activities in addition to publication in the
state register and posting on the agency's website, such as:

(a) the publication of a general notice for the proposed rule making
in publications likely to be obtained by small businesses and local
governments of the types affected by the proposed rule;

(b) the direct notification of interested small businesses and local
governments affected by the proposed rule or organizations representing
the interests of such entities;

(c) the conduct of special open conferences concerning the proposed
rule for small businesses and local governments affected by the rule;
and

(d) the adoption or modification of agency procedural rules to reduce
the cost or complexity of participation in the rule making by small
businesses and local governments.

7. Each agency shall issue a revised regulatory flexibility analysis
when:

(a) the information presented in the analysis submitted pursuant to
this section is inadequate or incomplete, provided, however, such
revised analysis shall be submitted as soon as practicable to the
secretary of state for publication in the state register, provided,
further, if such statement exceeds two thousand words, the notice shall
include only a summary of such statement in less than two thousand
words;

(b) a proposed rule contains any substantial revisions and such
revisions necessitate that such analysis be modified; or

(c) there are no substantial revisions in the proposed rule but there
are changes in the text of the rule as adopted when compared with the
text of the latest published version of the proposed rule and such
changes would necessitate that such analysis be modified.