On April 10, the Ohio Chamber testified in support of House Bill 115, the companion legislation to Senate Bill 1. This bill will bring about much-needed regulatory relief for businesses in the state of Ohio.

Back in late February, the Chamber testified on SB 1 which is still currently pending in Senate Government Oversight and Reform Committee.  Specifically, the emphasis is on reducing the number of regulatory restrictions, not actual regulations. A regulatory restriction is defined as any of the words “shall”, “must”, “require”, “shall not”, “may not”, or “prohibit” when they appear in the body of a regulation.

Additionally, this legislation would require certain state agencies to reduce their regulatory burden on businesses by thirty percent by the end of 2022. While a thirty percent reduction in overall regulatory restrictions may be difficult for some of the agencies, the bill gives them an alternative: if an agency is unable to reach the thirty percent reduction schedule, for every subsequent new regulatory restriction it seeks to implement, it must remove two existing ones.

Currently, the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review (JCARR) and the Common Sense Initiative (CSI) do a great job during the implementation of rules, but overall reduction of regulations in our state is needed. This effort is vital to increasing economic competitiveness and driving down barriers of entry for businesses, particularly small businesses. It is our hope that this bill, or Senate Bill 1, moves quickly through the legislative process in order to bring about vital regulatory reform to continue to improve the economic environment in the state of Ohio.