(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Legislature has now passed a group of four bills dubbed the Red Tape Reset, and the four bills are next headed to the desk of Gov. Tony Evers.
The bills are aimed at cutting down on the 165,000 restrictions currently in state law. The bills passed the Senate on Wednesday and the Assembly on Thursday.
“People who work hard and try to play by the rules should be able to get ahead,” Sen. Bradley, R–New Berlin, said about the bills. “Because of red tape, that’s simply not the case for many. A young entrepreneur with a great idea shouldn’t be buried under layers of bureaucracy before they even get started.”
The set of bills include regulatory sunsetting, regulatory budgeting, a one rule per scope statement and a proposal challenging the validity of administrative rules.
The laws will require that, when a new rule adds costs for businesses, families or local governments, those costs must be offset.
The single scope bill blocks allowing agencies to use a single scope statement to create multiple regulations over time.
The challenge bill would require courts to award attorney fees and costs to plaintiffs who successfully challenge unlawful administrative rules.
Groups such as Americans for Prosperity – Wisconsin, Badger Institute, Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty have lobbied for the bills.
“Wisconsin has been an overregulated state for far too long, constricting our economic growth and saddling our entrepreneurs with unnecessary burdens,” AFP-WI State Director Megan Novak said in a statement. “Between our excessive regulations and the misguided decision by our partisan Supreme Court that removed a necessary legislative check on the governor in the rulemaking process, Wisconsin businesses and families deserve regulatory relief. These bills are a welcome step to get Wisconsin back on the right track and we thank lawmakers for prioritizing the Reset and their continued work to make Wisconsin the best place to build a business in the Midwest.”
