State House Targets “Red Tape” Business Regulations

Small Businesses given opportunity to have their voice heard

In following through on a major agenda item for the year, the House moved forward with efforts to create a Small Business “Red Tape” Reduction Bill.

“We want to make South Carolina a great place to do business,” House Speaker Bobby Harrell said. “While the Department of Commerce is our state’s chief job creating engine, the Legislature can take steps to improve our state’s business climate. Government should help – not hurt – economic progress by making it easier for Commerce to recruit jobs and help our businesses grow.”

The bill will originate in the House Labor, Commerce and Industry (LCI) Committee and will be shaped by testimony identifying regulations and bureaucracy hampering small businesses.

LCI Committee Chairman Bill Sandifer (R – Oconee & Pickens) commented, “Even with our successful past efforts to cut back and eliminate unneeded bureaucracy, government regulations have a bad habit of creeping back up. It is incredibly difficult to operate and grow a small business when too much of your time and efforts are spent dealing with overreaching and unnecessary government mandates. With 95% of all businesses in our state representing small businesses, we need to target and eliminate the red tape that is putting a stranglehold on their growth. That is why I am directing the Labor, Commerce and Industry Committee to begin work on a bill to enact common sense business regulation reforms.”

Small business owners, small business organizations, the Small Business Regulatory Review Committee, the Department of Commerce and others will all be involved in formulating these reforms in government regulations. Their testimony will serve as the basis for the committee’s direction and targeting of red tape regulations.

“With an issue like this, it’s always best to go to the source,” said Chip Huggins (R – Lexington), Chairman of the Business and Commerce Subcommittee. “We may write the laws, but the people who deal with these regulations hands-on in the day-to-day operations of their businesses truly know what works and what doesn’t. We want to give those small businesses that are driving our economy exactly what they need to grow and prosper. If we are to make a real positive impact in improving our economy, their voice needs to be heard and must be the guiding force of this legislation.”

Speaker Harrell added, “This blank-slate approach to targeting and eliminating unneeded red tape in business is exactly what we need. I encourage small businesses to use this opportunity to take an active role in shaping our state’s business climate. To truly help small businesses grow and create the jobs our citizens desperately need, we need a collaborative bill written with the direction of small businesses.”