Columbus, OH – On Wednesday, The Buckeye Institute released a new policy brief, Ohio: A Model for Regulatory Reform, highlighting the Buckeye State’s success in reducing the regulatory burden on families and businesses—a model that other states can and should follow.

In the brief, Greg R. Lawson, a research fellow at The Buckeye Institute, notes that Ohioans are currently burdened with more than 155,000 government regulations and that policymakers have worked aggressively to “lighten the state’s regulatory burden.” Ohio’s approach, Lawson points out, “offers other states a regulatory reform model worth following” and includes: 

• A comprehensive inventory of government regulations;
• A limit on the number of new regulations state agencies can impose; 
• A requirement that state agencies cut government regulations by 30 percent by June 2025;
• The DeWine/Husted administration’s Innovate the Code initiative, which analyzes the Ohio Revised Code and the Ohio Administrative Code for regulations policymakers can streamline or eliminate; and
• The creation of Cut Red Tape Ohio, where people can raise concerns regarding problematic government regulations.

Lawson further outlines several strategies that states need to employ to ensure success, including:

• Legislative leadership; 
• An inventory of rules and regulations; 
• Clearly defined statutory terms; 
• Agency accountability;
• Public feedback; and 
• Utilization of new technology.

Reducing a state’s regulatory burden on families and businesses is a “vital part of any pro-growth economic plan,” Lawson writes. Ohio has implemented an “effective regulatory reform agenda that other states can and should follow.” 

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