Well, that didn’t take long.
Just a few weeks ago, Gov. Perdue launched a program aimed at reducing and eliminating unnecessary rules created by state agencies and commissions.
The press conference in which she made the announcement was made at a school playground, to illustrate a prime example of a “silly rule” she felt should be altered or eliminated. Naturally, the commission tasked with developing the “silly rule” objects:
Last month, Perdue announced an order for her Cabinet not to create any more government rules unless they are absolutely necessary. To illustrate her point, she made the announcement standing in front of a Pittsboro elementary school playground. A state regulation that had applied to child care facilities but not schools had barred children in a YMCA after-school program at the school from using the playground.
Legislators had to pass a law to allow after-school programs housed in schools to use playgrounds that don’t meet the child care standards, a move the commission opposed.
A Nov. 4 letter signed by 10 of 15 commission members says that school playgrounds should have to comply with child care safety standards and asked Perdue to get the State Board of Education to require it.
And here’s the kicker:
Now, commission members want Perdue to push for wider implementation of the playground guidelines.
I expressed doubt this measure would have any real impact, as bureaucrats are loathe to loosen their grip over the behavior of their subjects. Even the governor’s shining example of a “silly rule” is already meeting resistance, and has inspired the desire for even wider implementation of the “silly rule.” And remember, it will be state bureaucrats who are the final arbiter over which rules are repealed.
Pardon me if I don’t feel much confidence this new program will, as a Perdue spokesman put it, “help existing businesses grow and to attract new companies by reducing the obstacles that state bureaucracy can sometimes create.”
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