New report looks to rollback some Wisconsin’s volumes of regulations
(The Center Square) – Wisconsin has more regulations in state law than any other state in the Great Lakes, and a new study looks to roll many of them back.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty on Wednesday released a report called “Over-Regulated: Six Reforms to Improve Wisconsin’s Regulatory Climate.”
The report looks at the 161,000 restrictions in the state’s Administrative Code and what can be done to cut back on that number.
WILL Policy Director Kyle Koenen told The Center Square there are some regulations, such as those for hunters and at the state’s Department of Agriculture, that date back to the 1950s and 1960s.
Koenen said once a regulation goes on the books, it’s hard to get it taken off.
“The growth of the regulatory state costs Wisconsin families and businesses alike, both in terms of time and money,” Koenen said.
The WILL study looks at regulations in the state’s Administrative Code that were created by bureaucrats.
Lawmakers are the ones who enable the bureaucrats to expand Wisconsin’s massive regulatory state, Koenen said.
“Legislators should remain vigilant in ensuring that legislation they pass doesn’t further empower the bureaucracy to place new burdens on Wisconsinites,” Koenen added. “These reforms will rightfully rebalance the power away from unelected bureaucrats into the hands of the people through their elected representatives.”
The study suggests automatic sunsetting, a report on new regulations, a requirement that new regulations not cost taxpayers more money, new rules that limit regulations to one issue at a time, increased oversight from lawmakers, and reforms to the state’s emergency rulemaking procedures.
“Unfortunately, state agencies have taken advantage of this as a loophole to promulgate regulations with limited public input in situations where such ‘emergency rulemaking’ is not necessary, or when the agency clearly had enough time to promulgate a permanent rule,” the study’s authors wrote.
“Wisconsinites are buried under a mountain of regulations far larger than our neighboring states. These burdensome regulations are particularly harmful to individuals of limited means, for whom the cost of regulation may put something important – from a big purchase to a change of career – out of reach. It is vital for the economic future of Wisconsin that policymakers work to reduce our state’s out of control regulatory environment.”
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