Gibbons: Businesses should play by new rules

By J. Patrick Coolican

Tuesday, April 10, 2007 | 7:16 a.m.

CARSON CITY - Gov. Jim Gibbons has asked the state Business and Industry Department to complete a top-down review of all business regulations, which could affect such areas as worker safety, consumer affairs, taxis, mortgage lending and real estate, although not gaming.

Mendy Elliott, the department's director, said the industries affected will be invited to weigh in about regulations they see as onerous or irrelevant.

The process won't be public until the proposed changes reach individual commissions in the department with jurisdiction over the activity, she said.

In a follow-up interview, Elliott said the department will welcome public input once the proposed regulations reach the commissions for consideration.

This potentially massive overhaul of state regulation has consumer and environmental advocates concerned.

"We certainly want to know more about the governor's plan to rewrite the rules for virtually every business in the state of Nevada, and we're certainly concerned he would propose such an action without the full participation of the Legislature and the public," said Launce Rake, a spokesman for the Progressive Leadership Alliance of Nevada.

Elliott said her department will try to protect Nevadans from bad actors who want to prey on consumers and workers. She added, though, that Business and Industry will "invite the people we're regulating to come in and review all the regulations to make sure they're still appropriate."

Taxi companies, for instance, will be invited to share their views on cab regulations.

Asked about input from people who ride in taxis, she said, "Most people who ride in taxis live out of state." She said the department will turn to chambers of commerce, the Nevada Resort Association and the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for input in cases like that one.

The general population won't be invited to offer input, although Elliott noted there will be plenty of opportunities for public input once the new regulations reach the commissions for consideration. Any public involvement before then would be cumbersome, she said.

For groups such as the leadership alliance, the specter of a regulatory overhaul with such a limited number of voices is disturbing: "It's hard to imagine how these rules would be anything but gifts to the affected industries if indeed the public is cut out of the process on the front end," Rake said.

A number of business lobbyists said they hadn't heard about the governor's plans. One lobbyist familiar with discussions about a regulatory review said the governor's intention isn't to allow business to write its own regulations. Rather, it's to get state government to focus less on paper-pushing and put more resources into catching predatory businesses.

By state law, regulatory changes are quite difficult and generate a considerable amount of public input once issues reach the commissions, which could stall any proposals from Elliott.

Commissions considering regulatory changes must give the public an opportunity for comment, first in an open workshop and then in a hearing.

Even after writing a regulation, the agency must submit it to legislative staff to make sure it conforms to legislative intent.

Finally, the Legislative Commission, which is made up of legislators from the Assembly and Senate, could object and throw out the new regulations.