Regulatory Reform

By Tom Campbell

Except in the case of emergency of health or safety, California should issue no new regulations without conducting an analysis that California needs to exceed whatever federal standards exist in the relevant issue, and whether the cost of California doing so, including the cost in lost jobs, is outweighed by the benefits to California.

California should undertake a rolling sunset of all existing regulations that have been in force for more than 25 years, covering roughly 20% of all these regulations every year. The regulations would automatically expire, unless the state agency affirmatively and specifically re-promulgates each one, having passed the tests required in the immediately preceding paragraph.

All new regulations should carry an automatic sunset within 10 years. If they are valuable, they can be re-promulgated – but based on evidence relevant to the current time, not the past.

The above are statements on several public policy issues drafted by Tom Campbell, former US Congressman, former California State Senator, former Director of Finance for California, and currently Interim Chairman of the Common Sense Party. They are meant to initiate consideration of several important issues; they are not the official views of the Common Sense Party. Please feel free to submit your own thoughts on these issues on the Open Policy Discussion Page.