State Assemblyman Paul Cook, from Yucca valley, has introduced legislation to fight overregulation and wasteful spending. Reporter Dan Stork has details…
Republican Assemblyman Paul Cook from Yucca Valley has introduced two new bills. He claims that if they are enacted, they would “fight overregulation and wasteful government spending.” When a state agency proposes a regulation, it is already required to assess the adverse economic impact of the regulation in terms of job creation and elimination, and business creation, elimination, and expansion. If the assessment of that impact exceeds more than $1 million in a year, AB 1537 would require the regulation to state that it will automatically be repealed in two years. The Legislature would be able to modify the automatic repeal of a regulation with specific legislation. The second proposed law, AB 1538, would require the State Controller to perform audits of state agencies with annual expenditures exceeding $50 million twice a year. With regard to this bill, Cook said, “If your fiscal house is in order, you should have nothing to hide. Unfortunately, I think we’re going to find waste and fraud once we open the books.” The audits are to be conducted by consultants working under contract to the State Controller, and part of their pay will be a percentage of overpayments to vendors that are recovered as a result of the audits.
ASSEMBLYMAN COOK BILLS FIGHT OVERREGULATION, OVERSPENDING
