Kasich: I will ax rules that hurt Ohio businesses

By MARC KOVAC

news@vindy.com

COLUMBUS

In his second major policy announcement in eight days, Republican governor challenger John Kasich said Wednesday he would streamline the state’s business regulations and do more than Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland to foster economic development in Ohio.

“A lot of business people have a difficult time trying to sort through all these rules and all these regulations that exist in Ohio that make it difficult for businesses to be able to be successful,” Kasich said, standing next to a tall stack of Ohio Administrative Code books. He called it a modern day Tower of Babel.

“We know that regulations are capable of killing people’s jobs.”

But Strickland quickly said that he has already been doing the things Kasich now wants to accomplish.

“Given these steps and our work cutting the size of government and lowering taxes, it would be unwise to do as Congressman Kasich suggests,” Strickland said. “Regulatory agencies should be focused on helping small businesses and creating jobs, not duplicating what we have already done and getting caught up in red tape.”

Appearing at a press conference at the Ohio Republican Party’s headquarters near the Statehouse, Kasich called the proposal his Common Sense Initiative, aimed at making regulations easier to understand, less costly and more consistently enforced.

He said, if elected, his running mate, state Auditor Mary Taylor, would conduct a full review of business regulations, targeting those that are duplicative, outdated or excessive.

“We are not talking about doing away with all these regulations,” Kasich said. “What we’re talking about here is an effort to say, if you’re a regulator, you’re going to work to help companies meet the regulatory standards in a way that promotes economic growth. We want to facilitate, not hinder, economic growth while still meeting the standards we all agree should be set for public health and safety.”

And for companies having difficulties with state regulators? “You’re going to call me,” Kasich said. “You got some knucklehead in there in an agency that doesn’t want to listen, you got bureaucrats in there that don’t want to listen and they frustrate out people.

“You’re going to get to me, and we’re going to deal with it, because we’re not going to let anyone get in the way of jobs.”

But in response to the announcement, Strickland said, under his administration, the state has revised more than 2,000 rules and eliminated nearly 280 of them after a review of 4,100 regulations.

And he said Kasich’s proposal looks a lot like an executive order the governor signed in early 2008.