At a press conference this week, Senate President Larry Obhof (R-Medina) called for additional reforms of Ohio’s regulatory environment. He was joined by Dr. James Broughel of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, who recently completed a study on the number of regulatory restrictions the state imposes. Mercatus has studied the regulatory environments of 22 states so far as part of its ongoing “State RegData” project. Their study concluded that Ohio is one of the most heavily regulated states they have analyzed, trailing only New York and Illinois, and far surpassing the neighboring states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and West Virginia. Senator Obhof proposed: “Tracking and accounting of the total number of restrictions in Ohio; allowing for a more thorough review process of which regulations are effective and which are outdated or duplicative; setting a reduction goal to bring Ohio more in-line with the national average and consider placing a cap once that goal is achieved; consider eliminating two rules for every new one that is created for the next three years, or until the reduction target is met.” 3/22/2018