Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor: ‘Culture change’ underway to make Ohio laws easier for business

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Tristan Navera

Ohio Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor and her team visited with the Dayton Business Journal editorial board on Thursday and discussed Ohio’s Common Sense Initiative (CSI) and how it’s working to create a more jobs-friendly regulatory environment in the state.

Tristan Navera

Staff Reporter- Dayton Business Journal

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Ohio's government is in the midst of a "culture change" to make the rules easier to do business, Ohio's Lieutenant Governor says.

In a meeting with Dayton Business Journal's editorial board, Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor discussed the state government's "Common Sense Initiative," (or CSI) a plan aimed at reducing red tape for businesses to grow. It's been a major initiative of Taylor and Gov. John Kasich, and she said the goal has been to remove the hurdles that have hindered businesses from growing, something often heard while campaigning for election in 2010.

"What we've learned is that sometimes the stalemate is just as frustrating as the wrong answer," Taylor said.

More than 5,000 Ohio rules have been reviewed since 2012, with about half of them being amended or rescinded. But, she said the goal has not been deregulation.

Related: Click here for a video of Taylor talking about the initiatives.

"We're not about getting rid of regulations," she said. "We're about regulations that protect the health and safety of Ohioans but doing it in a common sense way."

And she says it has led to some successes. For example, she said building permits, liquor issues, environmental regulations and other policies can be difficult for businesses to comply with, especially when agencies sometimes say contradictory things or have different standards in different parts of the state.

"We're not trying to curtail the laws that affect the environment or keep people safe, but we want to look at how some of these can be hard for businesses to work through," Taylor said.

Locally, several businesses have benefitted from the CSI efforts, said Chris Kershner, vice president of public policy/government affairs & economic development at Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce. Among them are Techmetals Inc. and Abbott Laboratories.