Politicians should cut red tape for small businesses

Small business owners should feel supported by policymakers.

Illinois employers, however, often feel they are navigating through treacherous regulatory terrain, hoping to avoid pitfalls and traps that can deeply impact their business.

Each year legislation is filed that, if passed, places new burdens on small businesses, often with corresponding fines and penalties. This puts small businesses on the defensive, hoping that new regulations do not threaten their viability or ability to grow.

The time has come to flip this script. Instead of politicians enacting legislation that places new mandates and regulatory burdens on small businesses, they should take swift and expansive steps to cut red tape for the small business community.

Gov. JB Pritzker has put cutting red tape front and center by proposing significant zoning reforms to improve processes for residential development. These reforms are meant to expedite processes and will benefit developers, contractors and ultimately, homebuyers. Illinois legislators should build off these proposals and extend efforts to cut red tape to the small businesses that drive our economy, create jobs, and support local communities.

Illinois politicians should create a task force to identify regulations that significantly impact the small business community. This task force should review these regulations and determine whether they should be modified because they are antiquated or unnecessarily burdensome. The associated penalties and fines should also be reviewed to ensure they do not disproportionately impact small and local businesses. This task force should make concrete recommendations to the General Assembly about which regulations should be changed or eliminated.

This task force should be charged with providing their analysis and recommendations to legislators within a reasonable time frame. Public hearings should be held where small business owners and advocates can describe how burdensome red tape actually impacts their businesses.

Based on the task force findings and hearings, legislators should quickly make common-sense regulatory changes so small businesses are not damaged by the unintended consequences of certain regulations. There should be a similar approach when new laws are introduced that will increase the regulatory burdens and potential exposure of small businesses. They should be carefully and publicly analyzed to ensure they do not needlessly harm small and local businesses.

Illinois politicians should also make meaningful reforms to occupational licensing by holding hearings and, where appropriate, modifying or eliminating outdated and burdensome occupational licenses. This should happen immediately.

There are far too many occupational licenses in our state and the costs associated with obtaining a license often stymies entrepreneurs and keeps folks from starting certain jobs. Occupational licensing reform is low-hanging fruit for policymakers that want to support small businesses and spark economic development.

Policymakers can support small businesses in their communities by cutting red tape. Notably, this can also result in less bureaucracy, which should save the state money.

We will be driving this message home and stand ready to work with politicians looking to make a big and positive impact on the small business community.

• Elliot Richardson is president and co-founder of the Small Business Advocacy Council.