Wednesday, October 03, 2007

The Cost of Government Regulations

I was in a meeting with a local government group. A very small group of a very small part of a local government body. The purpose of the meeting was to look at a way to automate a process that attempts to track and enforce federal regulations. What they are looking to do makes sense. They could do more and spend less by going ahead with the project. That being said, I walked out of the meeting shaking my head at the overall cost of of government regulations. This government body is spending many hundreds of thousands of dollars to basically spot check. You can argue if the cost is worth the benefit, I am not saying it is or is not. I am just saying the general public has no idea how much regulations cost.

Just had to finally get that off of my anti tax chest.

1 comment:

OregonGuy said...

Came across this story today, listening to my local radio station.

"To comply with new federal requirements, Oregon should give driver's licenses only to people who can prove they are in the state legally but at the same time make driving privileges availabe to undocumented worker in Oregon, Governor Ted Kulongoski says.

"Under pressure from the federal government, Kulongoski and the Legislature when it meets in 2008 are expected to take up the question that bears on immigration policy, the health of Oregon's farms and national security.

"The federal government's Real ID act requires states to bring their driver's licenses under a national standard and to link their records to national databases. The Congress passed it after the 2001 terrorist attacks.

"But the governor said such requirements would create a problem for workers "who do not have a legal presence in the state" and their employers."
At a service club meeting Tuesday in Eugene, Kulongoski said he understood the concern over identification questions, such as for passengers boarding airplanes, and he spelled out his position.