Jacobs Pushes for Major Regulatory Reform in Final Budget

Senator Jacobs

March 22, 2018

(Albany, NY) – State Senator Chris Jacobs is pushing for a comprehensive regulatory reform package to be included in the State Budget. "New York State businesses and local governments are 'drowning' in regulations and red tape, we need rational regulation reform and we need it now," said Jacobs.

“New York State leads the nation with more than 300,000 restrictive regulations while the national average is 150,000, and over a ten year period more than 2,700 new regulations were imposed with 66% of them bypassing public comment through abuse of the emergency rulemaking provisions,” said Jacobs. “This is a broken and runaway system that is stifling our economy and begging to be reformed.”

Jacobs serves as the Chairman of the Administrative Regulations Review Commission (ARRC), where thirteen separate bills were vetted for inclusion in the comprehensive reform package. They are designed to eliminate unnecessary and duplicative regulations, increase transparency and public input, curtail the abuse of emergency regulations, and help foster more cooperation between regulators and businesses, among other reforms.

In addition to cutting red tape and overregulation, the reform effort also includes a new initiative that the Senator believes would send a strong message to existing New York companies, as well as businesses considering in investing and creating jobs here, particularly in Buffalo and Western New York.

The bill would make the state more of an advocate than an adversary by creating a small business liaison to help start-ups navigate the state agency bureaucracy. The advocate would hear concerns, advocate within an agency on behalf of small businesses and increase education of and outreach to entrepreneurs.

“I have heard from businesses whose growth has been stifled, I have met with not-for-profits whose ability to provide valuable services has been hampered, and I have seen first-hand how unnecessary regulations burden local governments and make their operations more costly,” said Jacobs. “This regulatory reform package will take a major step towards decreasing the cost of local government and increasing the competitiveness of our local businesses,” Jacobs concluded.”

The follow regulatory reform bills have been included in S.7505-B: