Making Our State Government More Efficient with the Governor’s ‘No MO Red Tape’ Initiative
Like many of you reading this, I’ve grown increasingly dismayed over the years by the massive federal and state government bureaucracies that intrude into our daily lives, diminish our liberties and stifle innovation and economic growth. Although I believe regulations generally are created or expanded upon out of a desire to do good, both the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) and the Missouri Code of State Regulations (CSR) are now so complex and voluminous that they’ve become difficult for our citizens and businesses to navigate.
While doing away with unnecessary, outdated and redundant regulations at the federal level is beyond our purview, we can do something about it at the state level, and that’s exactly what the governor’s hoping to accomplish with the “No MO Red Tape” initiative.
In early January, just one day after being sworn in, the governor signed Executive Order 17-03, which requires Missouri agencies to conduct a review of all existing and proposed regulations. According to the No MO Red Tape website, there were more than 7.2 million words in the Missouri CSR at the time the governor signed the executive order. Developed by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, the analytical tool known as State RegData revealed that the Missouri CSR also contains 113,112 regulations. I think the No MO Red Tape sums it up best: “With so many rules, it’s difficult to tell which ones are helping Missouri citizens and which ones are just unnecessary red tape.”
I’m challenging residents of the 12th Senate District to participate in the No MO Red Tape initiative. Simply go to the No MO Red Tape website and review a regulation by May 31, 2018. Together, we can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our state government, as well as Missouri’s economy, by eliminating burdensome, job-killing regulations.
As always, please feel free to call, email, or write with your ideas or concerns. My Capitol office number is (573) 751-1415, my email is dan.hegeman@senate.mo.gov and my mailing address is Room 332, State Capitol Building, Jefferson City, MO 65101.