Your government, State as well as federal, creates not only legislation (the work of the legislature) but also rules and regulations that spell out how the legislation will be implemented-- the regulatory process.
The Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform (GORR) is, under Executive Order 20 of 1995, an office designed to improve the State’s regulatory process.
GORR’s role is to help the State and its agencies write better rules and regulations. These must be:
With “oversight of the regulatory process,” GORR is to send to the Governor’s Counsel for review and for a gubernatorial decision rules that are balanced, well drafted and soundly based.
GORR also has broader powers, such as to ask an agency to develop new rules, to perform cost-benefit and impact analyses of proposed rules and to analyze with agencies whether certain rules should be eliminated. Further, with policy direction from the Executive Chamber, GORR collaborates with agency leadership and counsel to see that substantive program priorities are pursued. GORR’s role is flexible and dynamic. It plays an integral role in working with the Governor’s senior leadership to implement through rule-making, creatively and within proper legal limits, the authority at their disposal.
GORR also assists small business. The Business Permit Assistance unit works directly with clients and operates an online permitting program known as OPAL. Both allow someone starting a new business, or having other kinds of dealings with the State, access to one-stop shopping and online application for permits and other information. GORR also works with Empire State Development to foster economic development upstate with the “Build Now-NY” and “Shovel Ready” programs, which help "pre-permit" sites to enable rapid commercial development.
