Washington’s administrative code contains 196,028 restrictions, suggesting a higher regulatory burden than Oregon or Idaho
In a report last year on the regulatory burden, we mentioned the Mercatus Center’s FRASE Index, which quantifies the impact of federal regulations on industries in each state. To construct the index, the Mercatus researchers estimated the regulatory restrictions contained in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. These are terms like “shall, must, may not, […]
September 05 , 2018 - WRC
New special report: Manufacturing Jobs Part III: A Costly and Uncertain Regulatory Burden Harms Competitiveness
Regulations serve an important role in our economy, but if they are too costly, they can have a negative impact. Consequently, cost-benefit analysis of proposed regulations has long been considered a best practice. Federal regulations could cost up to $2 trillion a year, and regulations are particularly costly for manufacturers. Washington ranks poorly in interstate […]
January 04 , 2018 - Emily Makings
Apple growers and regulatory fatigue
The New York Times ran a good story last week on the regulatory burden experienced by apple growers. It focuses on a family operation in New York, but the story will be familiar for Washington growers and other businesses. This is life on the farm — and at businesses of all sorts. With thick rule […]
August 23 , 2017 - Emily Makings
Red tape, delays contribute to the cost of housing
In a couple of stories yesterday, the Seattle Times writes about a proposal to tax nonresident buyers of Seattle real estate as a way to address the high price of Seattle housing. The Times reports that City Attorney Pete Holmes said such a tax would be illegal. Meanwhile, over the past month, the Sightline Institute has […]
April 21 , 2017 - Mary Strow
New regulatory reform for small business
This week Gov. Jay Inslee signed into law House Bill 1120, a regulatory reform bill sponsored by state Rep. Norma Smith (R-Clinton). According to a news release from Rep. Smith, the legislation was in response to an audit conducted by the State Auditor’s Office (SAO) last year that found many state agencies were not complying with […]
December 30 , 2016 - Emily Makings
Auditor: Room for improvement in agencies’ implementation of the Regulatory Fairness Act
The State Auditor’s Office has identified several ways to make Washington’s Regulatory Fairness Act work better. This new performance audit is part of a regulatory reform series the SAO began in 2011. We’ve written about the previous work in two policy briefs: Regulatory Reform: A Win-Win-Win for Agencies, Businesses, and Taxpayers (2015) and A Complex Maze […]
December 19 , 2016 - Mary Strow
June 17 , 2016 - Emily Makings
Housing affordability, regulatory reform, and rent control
Josh Lehner of the Oregon Office of Economic Analysis writes about “the Housing Trilemma.” (Via Jon Talton.) As Lehner puts it, Every city wants to have a strong local economy, high quality of life and housing affordability for its residents. Unfortunately these three dimensions represent the Housing Trilemma. A city can achieve success on two […]
November 17 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Next level regulatory reform
Tyler Cowen links to a recent paper on Canadian regulatory reform by Laura Jones of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. In April, Canada enacted the Red Tape Reduction Act, under which the federal government must eliminate at least one regulation if it wants to create a new one. According to the paper, British Columbia has been doing this […]
October 05 , 2015 - Mary Strow
Governor's new carbon-cap rule could include Seattle's lone steel manufacturing plant
Last month, Gov. Jay Inslee directed the state Department of Ecology to start “writing a rule that would cap and reduce carbon pollution.” This directive came after the governor’s carbon cap-and-trade proposal died in the 2015 legislative session. Ecology also released a list of entities it says emit at least 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide […]