On Friday, New York Governor David Patterson signed Executive Order 25 allowing political advisors to Patterson to review and recommend reform or repeal of existing state regulations and paperwork requirements.

According to the executive order, the review panel will work with state agencies to “conduct an internal review as well as outreach to interested parties and affected constituencies, to identify unsound or unduly burdensome or costly rules and paperwork that can be eliminated or reformed to accomplish the goals of this Order.”

Agencies must also accept comment on existing regulations to give the public and businesses an opportunity to identify "unnecessary, unbalanced, unwise, duplicative or unduly burdensome” regulations – a tactic reminiscent of the regulatory hit lists crafted during the Bush administration.

New York appears to be taking a page out of the federal government’s book by imposing more and more analytical requirements on agencies responsible for protecting the public. Patterson’s new executive order, which only covers existing regulations, will require state agencies to review regulations much like Section 610 of the Regulatory Flexibility Act requires federal agencies to retrospectively review their rules.

And, as The New York Times points out, the state already has an office that functions in a way similar to the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs: “Agencies are already required to conduct lengthy reviews of new procedures and regulations before they become final.”

Patterson also signed a separate order in April that requires agencies to assess new policies’ impacts on local spending and property tax. The order imposes requirements similar to the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, which federal agencies must comply with.

State business groups praised Patterson for issuing the order. The Times article also covers the public interest response:

“All this will do is tie agencies up in knots at a time when they have fewer resources than ever to carry out their essential functions,” said Laura Haight of the New York Public Interest Research Group, a nonpartisan watchdog group. “This is a backdoor assault on New York’s laws to protect our health, environment and safety, which is sure to be greeted with cheers from New York’s business community.” 

Image by Flickr user zcopley, used under a Creative Commons license.