Arizona governor Doug Ducey has once again issued an executive order preventing state agencies from creating more regulations.

Ducey’s Executive Order signed Wednesday renewed his administration’s recommendations for an annual moratorium on regulatory rulemaking for all state agencies. He first issued the moratorium in 2015, his first year in office.

“Arizona’s streamlined regulatory environment emphasizes our commitment to creating a pro-business environment,” Ducey said in a press release. “This common-sense approach is integral to the state’s phenomenal growth. Along with universal licensing, we’re lowering barriers and creating opportunities that have both businesses and families flocking here.”

Ducey’s administration touted his record on deregulation, saying that it has eliminated or changed 3,047 regulations. The administration says it has saved job creators more than $169.1 million with these regulation cuts.

“Our first official action in office was to implement a moratorium on all new regulatory rulemaking by state agencies,” Ducey said in the press release. “Every year since, we’ve transformed the culture of government, wiped out needless barriers, gotten government out of the way of job creation, and opened the doors for economic opportunity.”

The Executive Order directs state agencies to periodically review their regulatory burdens and reduce them when possible. The administration says that it will lead to greater job growth and economic development.

The administration says that state agencies will continue to protect public health and consumer welfare. However, the administration also says that for every one new necessary, non-emergency regulation added by state agencies last year, 25 were either repealed or amended. In all, it says that 231 regulations were removed last year, saving taxpayers $11.6 million.

Ducey gave his 2022 State of the State Address on January 10 and called for the regulatory moratorium to be codified into state law.

“We’ve taken a baseball bat to that bureaucracy, with a moratorium on new regulations ever since 2015,” he said. “I don’t know about you, but I haven’t heard any complaints. Maybe because we’ve already saved taxpayers $169 million. Let’s make these reforms permanent, in law, and ensure Arizona is always the land of economic freedom and opportunity for all.”

*****

This article was published by The Center Square and is reproduced with permission.