Key Points

• Agencies have proposed 85 pieces of legislation aimed at providing Montanans permanent Red Tape Relief.
• Montanans can expect more red tape relief as legislators begin to take up these proposal during the 2023 Legislative Session.

Summary

The Montana Red Tape Tracker was developed to provide an overview of the work being done by Governor Gianforte’s Red Tape Relief Initiative. In our August 2022 Red Tape Snapshot, the Frontier Institute found that Montana’s regulatory burden had been reduced by .66% from 2021 to 2022. This reduction was the largest decrease in the last four years. While worthy of celebration, more work can be done. This is where the 2023 legislative proposals come into play. The Executive branch alone can only go so far in reducing red tape. With this in mind agencies have begun proposing legislation for the 2023 Legislative Session aimed at providing permanent red tape relief.

Red Tape Relief Legislation

After cutting extensive red tape via the administrative rule making process, agencies have moved to proposing legislation that will allow for permanent red tape relief.

State agencies have proposed 85 separate pieces of legislation that target red tape relief across three different areas.

These three areas are based on categories laid out in Governor Gianforte’s Red Tape Relief Executive Order. The categories are: Especially Burdensome Impact on Small Business, Repeal Unnecessary Regulation and Modernize Outdated Regulations.

The Especially Burdensome Impact on Small Business category focuses on legislation that streamlines and simplifies regulations for small business owners. This includes simplifying licensing and removing duplicative requirements.

The Repeal Unnecessary Regulation category includes statutes that are no longer enforced or are necessary, and now only provide confusion.

The Modernizing Outdated Regulations category seeks to align statutes with updated information and with federal policy.