In a strongly worded condemnation of our state’s regulatory climate, the WEDC, comprised of stakeholders representing business and labor, agency directors and lawmakers from both parties, says, “Washington’s overly burdensome regulatory system must be addressed as a top economic development priority.”
Acknowledging that “regulatory processes impose costs-of-doing business, and significantly influence investment behavior, location decisions, start-up activity, expansions and hiring” and referencing the Auditor’s report of the state’s regulatory short-comings, the WEDC includes a comprehensive list of specific recommendations to revamp how the state regulates businesses.
Sen. Braun will discuss some of the difficulties he has in running his business under our state’s regulatory burden, and join NFIB and other officials for a discussion on ways to alleviate the problem.
WPC has a series of long-standing policy recommendations to reduce the regulatory burden on business. WPC recommendations include requiring the governor to review and approve new agency regulations, reviewing regulations to identify those that are outdated, duplicate or contradict each other, including a regulatory sunset provision for new regulations and submitting all existing regulations to review by the legislature every five years.