The state auditor's office has been working on a performance audit of Washington's regulatory system. Last September, the auditor created an inventory of regulations in the state, by agency. Yesterday, the auditor released "Regulatory Reform: Communicating Regulatory Information and Streamlining Business Rules." The audit asks if "state government websites effectively provide regulatory information to businesses" and if "regulatory agencies have processes in place to streamline their business rules consistent with governors' orders."

The answer to both questions is essentially "not really." There are three different central business websites, but none is complete. Even the information on agency websites themselves is incomplete: "While all permits and licenses are available online, complete regulatory information for 57 of the most requested permits and licenses is not available." As the audit notes,

It is not enough to put 'some' or 'most' information online. When businesses face penalties if they do not comply with all the regulations, it is only fair that they be able to find out about 100 percent of those regulations online.

Additionally,

Ultimately, anything other than complete regulatory information poses a significant and potentially costly risk for business owners. Understanding regulatory requirements is especially burdensome for small businesses that cannot afford to hire attorneys or consultants to help them understand and comply with the state's regulations.

Businesses can be subject to fines and other penalties if they are found to be out of compliance. If they lack information about processing times, they cannot make fully-informed investment and operational decisions.

Access to processing time information is a problem: "only 23 percent of permits and licenses provide online information about processing times, despite direction to do so from the Legislature and Governor."

The audit also found that while many agencies do streamline some rules, Ecology, Health and Labor & Industries don't have formal review processes. Additionally, "none of the agencies we visited formally measured the results of streamlining activity to determine whether rule revisions had their intended effects."

Recommendations include creating a "single, one-stop portal for all business transactions with state government," ensuring that "all regulatory agencies provide complete and accurate information for all business licenses and permits on their websites," and requiring all agencies to "adopt streamlining processes."

A few interesting facts from the audit:

• In 2010, "agencies proposed nearly 17,000 pages of new and revised rules — more than double the number proposed 30 years earlier." In 2011, after a freeze on "non-critical rule-making," agencies submitted 13,000 pages of rule revisions.
• 26 state agencies administer 1,377 permits, licenses, and inspections. Four agencies have permits, licenses, and inspections totaling over 100: Health (284), Ecology (199), Agriculture (166), and Labor & Industries (107).

I look forward to the next installment of this regulatory reform audit series, which will look at permit processing times.