(TRENTON) — Assemblyman John J. Burzichelli today issued a multimedia package in which he discusses the final report of a bipartisan group tasked with reducing unnecessary and cumbersome government bureaucracy in New Jersey.
Created by Executive Order 3, the Red Tape Review Group — a bipartisan body with representatives from both the Legislative and Executive branches — was empowered to “review all pending and proposed rules and regulations,” and create a blueprint for reform.
Burzichelli (D-Gloucester) was one of seven individuals who served on the panel.
The multimedia package consists of a video on the commission’s final report, audio of the same and a transcript of Burzichelli’s comments.
The video can be accessed directly via our Web site — www.assemblydems.com — or by clicking here.
The audio file is available upon request.
A transcript of Burzichelli’s remarks is appended below:
“I was appointed to the red tape commission by Speaker Oliver, which is an honor. There are only seven people on this commission — it’s chaired by the lieutenant governor — and this was directed to occur by the governor, by Executive Order, that this review of our regulations start.
“The lt. governor had 90 days to get the report in and we met the deadline. We have reviewed over 800 pages of regulations that exist. And the goal of the red tape commission is to try to streamline, offer suggestions where legislation is needed, where executive action can be taken to cut red tape in New Jersey.
“Regulations are very important. They’re supposed to protect the public interest, not suffocate the public interest. And, over time, New Jersey’s regulatory environment has grown too big, too unwieldy and has caused business to struggle and even individuals who try to do things with their own property find themselves caught in a maze of red tape. So, the roadmap this report becomes is going to be very helpful.
“Our regulations are developed through an act called the ‘Administrative Procedure Act’ and that’s how regulation gets vetted. That’s how regulation becomes an active regulation. We’re going to look to overhaul that. And that will make the regulatory process — from the very beginning — better, so regulations that get approved and are agreed to follow some basic common sense principles: do they work; are they doing what they’re supposed to? It’s a little bit boring, it doesn’t make a headline but that’s where this all starts.
“The goal is to cut red tape. The goal is to get an operation in place that’s called ‘one stop shopping,’ so, if you’re going to start a business in New Jersey, you pick the phone up, you call one phone number and they help steer you through the regulatory process — the permits, the questions you may have. I think that’s going to be very helpful.
“But above all, we’ve got to cut the number of regulations down. Let’s keep the ones we need and get rid of the ones that are hurting us.”
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