Every Ohioan deserves the opportunity to build a better life for themselves and their family, and few things have a greater impact on that than a growing economy.

Unfortunately, while the latest Ohio job numbers were solid, private-sector job growth remains below the national average and recent research from The Ohio State University found that “Ohio has witnessed a steady decline in its economic well-being, compared to the nation as a whole, for more than 60 years.”

And while there are no silver bullet solutions to Ohio’s job challenges, rolling back government red tape, particularly in the area of occupational licensing, can remove barriers to job opportunities and career advancement. As our President Robert Alt has said of the burden imposed on Ohioans by the presence of too many rules, “This isn’t just a story of the number of regulations, this is a story of people.”

A Gordian Knot of rules hampers the prosperity of too many Ohioans as they become lost in a maze of rules, regulations, and government permission slips. Take Jennifer McClellan as an example.

Despite years of training and work experience in Minnesota, the Ohio State Medical Board denied Jennifer an Ohio license. According to the Board, she was ten days shy of the state’s training requirements. The board failed to consider Jennifer’s years of work experience and refused to honor the license she had already earned in Minnesota. All Jennifer wanted to do was be closer to family and earn a living doing what she was passionate about. She was denied.

Or consider the experience of Dawn Hochwalt, a salon manager from Dayton, Ohio who sees first-hand how Ohio’s burdensome regulations impact her employees and her business, with little to no benefit to public health and safety. She also sees the impact the rising costs of cosmetology school has on her colleagues whose wages are being garnished to repay student loans. As Hochwalt said recently, “When I was in school it cost around $6,000 to go to school and get a license, now that cost is $20,000 or more. That debt is putting a tremendous burden on young people and the 1,500 hours they need to earn their license means they are not able to get on the salon floor to earn a living and pay off their debt.”

With every story like those of Jennifer and Dawn – people who are blocked from prospering by government rules – we are all poorer.

Some progress has been made. The Common Sense Initiative has begun to deal with regulatory overreach, prevent bad rules from going forward, and pared others down. However, the fact that all too many rules have yet to be wiped from the books represents a missed opportunity to be bolder and go further.

Worse, it is not clear that there is any stopping the continued growth of Ohio’s rulebook – the Ohio Administrative Code. Occupational licensing bills, for example, continue to proliferate, which will add yet more regulations on Ohioans.

This is illustrated by the recently released report from the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, A Snapshot of Ohio Regulation in 2018. This study found Ohio to be one of the most heavily regulated states, with nearly 247,000 restrictions, which far outpaces neighbors like Michigan, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, and West Virginia.

As The Buckeye Institute has shown in our studies, Forbidden to Succeed: How Licensure Laws Hold Ohioans Back and Still Forbidden to Succeed: The Negative Effects of Occupational Licensing on Ohio’s Workforce, licensing hurts young and minority Ohioans at a disproportionate level. It forces them to comply with permission-slip policies that force them to obtain a piece of paper emblazoned with the word “license” just to make a living.

Ending these permission-slip policies is a promise that Ohio leaders should make today.

One way to do this is by pursuing policies that cut red tape, such as:

1. Embrace a stronger direction for the Common Sense Initiative so that it more aggressively rolls back burdensome rules that do little to nothing to protect Ohioans.
2. Empower the Joint Committee on Agency Rule Review in ways such as those found in current legislation to ensure that regulations are regularly reviewed especially upon evidence of adverse impacts.
3. Ensure regulators are continually reviewing regulations by enacting a cap on new regulations such as the elimination of two rules for every new rule imposed. Leaders could also implement the Canadian province of British Colombia’s regulatory cap policy that achieved a 37 percent reduction of regulatory requirements.
4. Make it the official policy of the state to seek the least restrictive form of regulation when a rule is necessary to protect the health and safety of Ohioans;
5. Give the General Assembly greater tools over licensure through a robust sunset review for existing licensure laws and a sunrise process for newly proposed licenses.

Calls for occupational licensing and regulatory reform have bi-partisan support. For example, calls to institute a regulatory reform have been made by leaders like Senate President Larry Obhof and echoed by Attorney General Mike DeWine, while reforms to occupational licensing has both Republican and Democrat champions. This is a positive sign but only the beginning of what is required.

All too often, Ohio creates permission-slip policies that make it harder—and sometimes impossible—for Ohioans to pursue their careers and put food on the table for their families. Such policies must end.

Greg R. Lawson is the research fellow at The Buckeye Institute.