Generally people think of Washington when they think of legal regulations (over one million restrictions, currently)—and it becomes easy to forget the many regulations that Utah implements each year. While Utah strives to maintain an image of being “best for business” and “best managed,” its 88,150 regulations reveal a much different picture.
According to a recently released report by the Mercatus Center, it would take an individual nearly 8 weeks to read the entire Utah Administrative Code (assuming 40 hours a week, 300 words per minute). This offers a glimpse into the reality of the costs of compliance for many Utah businesses.
It would be a hard case to make that all these restrictions are absolutely necessary, considering that a neighboring state like Arizona—with over twice the population—has nearly 30% less regulations. As the Trump Administration takes aim at reducing federal regulations, Utah needs to follow suit and live up to its accolades.
To see the full Utah report, click here.
Executive Vice President
Michael is the Executive Vice President, overseeing all of Libertas’ public policy efforts.