Most states and even the federal government are way ahead of North Carolina when it comes to having protections against agencies going overboard with their regulations.
Some of the biggest policy decisions that affect the lives of North Carolinians are made by administrative agencies, commissions, and boards. For most of these bodies, those making decisions aren’t elected or accountable to anyone.
Ideally, the legislature wouldn’t delegate so much power to agencies. However, since there will likely be delegation of some power, the regulatory process has to be created in a way so that agencies don’t develop policy out of whole cloth, but instead implement the will of the legislature. There also should be protections to ensure that regulations are developed with careful thought and consideration.
In my new report, I identify seven simple reforms North Carolina should adopt to reform our regulatory process. These deficiencies in our regulatory process hurt our economic competitiveness and put too much power in the hands of unelected bureaucrats.
I will highlight some key aspects of regulatory reform over the next couple of weeks (on the Locker Room).
The question is how do we regulate the regulators?
