Senator Ritchie Cutting Red Tape on Businesses

Bill She Sponsors Reduces Unnecessary Regulations
 
 State Senator Patty Ritchie's bill (S 4080) reducing unnecessary regulations on food stores passed the State Senate.
 
"One of my top priorities is helping to reduce the costs of doing business in New York State," Senator Ritchie said. "Companies across the state have told me that abolishing the requirement that stores provide a set of scales 30 feet from locations where food is packaged will help retailers reduce the costs they pass on to consumers."  
 
Back in 1977, the state began requiring food stores to install scales every 30 feet from meat and seafood counters and other locations where food is wrapped or packaged to protect consumers by allowing them to personally check whether grocery items wrapped for sale actually weighed as much as they were labelled.
 
"Over the past 30 years, the county Consumer Affairs and Weights and Measures inspectors have done an outstanding job of insuring that stores deliver what they promise," Senator Ritchie said. "Most food stores are also routinely providing hanging scales in the produce section to allow customers to weigh what they buy to determine their weight and cost."
 
"Retailers and local consumers have found that hanging scales are used regularly and the computing scales receive little use. Mandating computing scales is unnecessary in today's shopping environment," Senator Ritchie said. "My legislation updates the Agriculture and Markets Law to remove the unnecessary and outdated mandate on food retailers. One computing scale per food store will still be required by law and subject to current regulations."

"I am very pleased that Assembly Agriculture Committee Chair William Magee is joining me by sponsoring this legislation so our two houses can help cut red tape, reduce unneccessary regulations, cut costs to retailers and change New York State's image as the worst place to do business in America," Senator Ritchie said. "Together, I believe we are showing we can work together on a bipartisan basis to help consumers and the businesses that serve them."