Having long encouraged policies that would make it easier for employers to do business in Illinois, Senate Republican lawmakers applauded Governor Bruce Rauner’s creation of the Illinois Competitiveness Council. The council will review all agency rules and regulations with the hope of cutting the red tape in Illinois and saving the state $250 million over the next decade.
For years, Senate GOP legislators have echoed concerns raised by the business community, saying the state’s duplicative, contradictory and outdated regulations make it unnecessarily difficult—in some cases time and/or cost prohibitive—to do business in Illinois.
Representatives from each of Illinois’ regulatory state agencies will serve on the council to ensure current regulations are up to date and relevant to today’s industries and practices. Furthermore, they will make sure the language in the rules is easy to understand and will reduce the amount of burdensome requirements put on businesses, social service providers and citizens—and are expected to save Illinois taxpayers and business owners at least 4 million pages in paperwork.
In addition to examining regulations, council members will also look at the state’s licensing process where they hope to save at least $250 million over the next decade from the cost of direct license fees.
In order to have the greatest impact, the Illinois Competitiveness Council is encouraging the public to submit input on their website on which rules and regulations are the most burdensome to people and businesses.