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December 15, 2009 Portlandbiz

Newly revived board targets regulatory burdens

By Carol Coultas

As the owner/operator of a small biomedical lab, Eliot Stanley recalls the impact on his business when the state Department of Environmental Protection took over the regulation of laboratory wastes.

"It doubled the cost of the chemical we were using and then we had to incinerate the spent material, which involved contracting with a Massachusetts firm," says Stanley, who now chairs the state's Regulatory Fairness Board. The resulting paperwork added to the additional costs, creating a significant impact on his business.

"A small business rarely has the opportunity to double its prices to its customers," to make up for the costs, he says. "Those are real problems."

Stanley, now retired and of Portland, brings his business background to his role as overseer of a newly revived regulatory fairness board. The board convened a hearing yesterday in Augusta, inviting business people to testify about their experiences with state regulators.

Over the four-hour hearing, witnesses spoke of cumbersome and redundant regulations that stifle business development and economic growth. Chris Hall, senior vice president of the Portland Regional Chamber of Commerce, says he spoke at length on his members' behalf about the frustrations in the state regulatory system and offered suggestions on how to correct them.

"Often there is a contest for regulatory control between local, state and federal agencies and the business person is stuck in the middle," he says.

He says he hopes the board will come out with four or five regulatory reform goals, which it will pass on to the Legislature and governor in its report expected Feb. 1. Hall says he threw out one to consider.

"How about if a business person does the paperwork once and it's distributed to however many agencies regulate that business?" he suggests. "Do we have to file separately with the Department of Agriculture, DHS, Weights and Measures, the state Fire Marshal's Office? Do they all need to look at us?"

Stanley says the hearing was "solid," with plenty of questions, answers and discussion. Created in 2005, the board was initially charged with hearing regulatory complaints and suggesting solutions. But it has been inactive for the past couple of years due to a lack of funds to pay for its volunteer members to travel around the state convening hearings and other operational expenses.

Now newly revived with a three-year budget and new members, the board has an additional mission conferred by the Legislature. In addition to handling complaints, it is also charged with designing ways Maine can be more competitive in attracting new business - including streamlining regulatory processes and the removal of redundancies, says Stanley. Work already performed by the board has helped form an administrative process act sponsored by Rep. Nancy Smith, co-chair of the Legislature's Business, Research and Economic Development Committee, he says.

Stanley expects there will be three public hearings before the board scheduled in 2010, most likely with two in the northern part of the state and one in the Portland area. Hall is hopeful the Regulatory Fairness Board will find success.

"If this board wants to articulate the case for the next governor that gets rid of the frustration and addresses the regulatory infrastructure, the elemental redundancies, the paperwork and cost, then I think this could be powerful work," he says.

Read more about yesterday's hearing >>

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