Governor DeWine, Lt. Governor Husted Announce Plan to Cut One-Third of Ohio Administrative Code

(COLUMBUS, Ohio)—Ohio Governor Mike DeWine and Lt. Governor Jon Husted today announced a new plan that, when complete, will eliminate nearly one-third of the Ohio Administrative Code by targeting duplicative provisions, outdated sections, and unnecessary requirements.

Under the direction of Lt. Governor Husted, Ohio’s Common Sense Initiative (CSI) was tasked with identifying sections of the Ohio Administrative Code (OAC) that are no longer used, duplicative or unnecessary. As a result, plans are currently in motion to remove nearly one-third of the Ohio Administrative Code, which equates to more than 5 million words and over 20,000 pages from Ohio’s regulatory system.

“This kind of reduction is truly historic,” said Governor DeWine.  “It’s another example of how Ohio is leading. When site selectors are looking for the best place to open or expand a business, they look at our regulatory code. When they do that, we want them to find useful information about operating in Ohio, not tons of red tape.”

"There has been a lot of talk about eliminating unnecessary regulations, and we are doing it,” said Lt. Governor Husted. “This is common-sense regulatory reform that will make it easier for people and businesses to comply with the law, and it will save everyone time and money.”

Lottery Games
CSI discovered last year that approximately 10 percent of the words in the state administrative code involve procedures for specific Ohio lottery games, and that Ohio is the only one of our neighboring states to implement lottery games in this manner. CSI has already worked with the Lottery Commission to remove over 240 of these rules for games that are no longer played in Ohio, and in some cases haven’t been in a decade. Through updates proposed in the state budget, these procedures will remain readily available through the Lottery Commission but will no longer be adopted into administrative rules. 

Higher Education
Ohio is the only state – compared to surrounding states – that requires each public institution of higher education to individually adopt the entire contents of university policies as regulations in the Ohio Administrative Code. As a result, Ohio has over 2.3 million words in the OAC that are duplicative, since Ohio law already requires state institutions to publish these policies on their websites. As part of the project, CSI plans to work to eliminate these duplicative rules through language in the state budget this year.

Building Codes
Ohio is unique in that national building and fire code standards are copied word for word in the OAC rather than simply referencing national requirements. The result is that there are approximately 1.5 million words in the state’s plumbing, fire, residential, building, and mechanical codes, which is vastly more than any of Ohio’s neighboring states.  By rewriting state codes to only identify the differences between Ohio and other states rather than copying national standards word for word, the size of the OAC can be significantly reduced, making it easier for businesses to identify Ohio-specific building and fire code requirements. These changes will be enacted through the ordinary rule process to ensure that Ohio businesses have the opportunity to share their feedback.

New Virtual Tool
Finally, CSI was tasked with creating a tool on its website that tracks legislation that requires the adoption of rules. The mission of this resource is to ultimately reduce regulatory burden by helping Ohioans, legislators, and business groups to readily identify recent legislation that requires the creation of new regulations. Agencies, members and staff of the Ohio General Assembly, and other individuals can find and use the tracker that launched today at CSI.Ohio.Gov.

The regulatory reform project announced today builds upon previous initiatives led by CSI and InnovateOhio to streamline and update the Ohio Revised Code and Ohio Administrative Code.

Last year, the Lt. Governor and Ohio lawmakers announced Innovate the Code, legislation that would ultimately save state agencies approximately $44 million over the next decade, as well as at least 58,000 hours of state employee time by updating administrative rules and statutes that require outdated methods of communication or in-person interaction. "Innovate the Code" language will be included in the as-introduced version of the State Operating Budget.

Business groups, higher education organizations and good government entities praised today’s announcement for streamlining the code – making it easier to navigate and reducing red tape.

To read these quotes of support, click here.