Regulatory Review For Agriculture Signed Into Law

Albany, N.Y.-- Legislation sponsored this year by State Senator George H. Winner, Jr. (R-C, Elmira) to create a permanent, comprehensive process to review state rules and regulations to make sure that they’re not detrimental to the state's agricultural industry, has been signed into law by Governor George Pataki.

"This new law truly marks a significant shift in the state government landscape by guaranteeing that our regulatory bureaucracy undertakes an across-the-board assessment of its impact on farming. That’s a great victory for agriculture in New York State," said Winner, who earlier this year was appointed chairman of the Legislative Commission on the Development of Rural Resources. "I’m glad that we were finally able to get it done."

The legislation, which Winner said has been introduced in the Legislature for over a decade, seeks to ensure that New York's bureaucracy constantly monitors the impact state rules and regulations have on agriculture. It received bipartisan support this year after being sponsored by Winner and his Assembly counterpart on the Rural Resources Commission, Assemblyman David Koon (D-I, Perinton), the commission's vice-chairman. Winner, Koon and other supporters, including the New York Farm Bureau, believe it will ultimately help ensure that the positive work many communities have done to strengthen agriculture is not inadvertently undermined by uninformed state rules and regulations.

"Agriculture is the backbone of our rural economies, and we can’t risk having a state bureaucracy that unfairly and unreasonably hinders the industry’s growth," said Winner.

Winner said that state industries have consistently pointed to overregulation as a key obstacle to economic growth in New York State. This has been particularly true, he said, in the farming industry. Since 1995, when Governor George Pataki created the new state Office of Regulatory Reform, New York’s regulatory reform efforts have been nationally recognized. Thousands of state regulations have been eliminated or substantially amended. It's estimated that these regulatory reform efforts have saved businesses and taxpayers over $1.7 billion over the past 10 years.

The state Legislature spoke clearly of the need to regularly review and modify unnecessary rules and regulations affecting agriculture when it enacted the 1971 Agricultural Districts Law. However, Winner said no specific procedures have ever been established and regular reviews have not occurred.

The new law directs the commissioner of the state Department of Agriculture and Markets (Ag and Markets) to undertake a comprehensive review of existing state regulations and establish a permanent procedure to review future proposed regulations. The legislation also directs state agencies to recommend modifying regulations found to be detrimental to agriculture.

Agriculture is the state's largest industry with gross receipts in excess of $3 billion annually.

"Bureaucratic overregulation has consistently been an obstacle to sustained economic growth within the agricultural industry. The new law establishes a permanent regulatory review process for agriculture. It will ensure that state government remains forever sensitive to how agriculture is impacted by government regulation," Winner said.