Public Act 0370 99TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

HB3887 Enrolled LRB099 08887 JLK 29059 b

Public Act 099-0370

AN ACT concerning State government.

Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly:

Section 5. The Business Assistance and Regulatory Reform Act is amended by adding Section 20 as follows:

(20 ILCS 608/20 new)

Sec. 20. Review of rules and regulations; reporting.

(a) As used in this Section:

"Small business" means a corporation or a concern, including its affiliates, that is independently owned and operated, not dominant in its field, and employs fewer than 50 full-time employees or has gross annual sales of less than $4,000,000. For purposes of a specific rule, an agency may define small business to include employment of 50 or more persons if it finds that such a definition is necessary to adapt the rule to the needs and problems of small businesses and organizations.

"State agencies" means all officers, boards, commissions, and agencies of the executive branch, including all officers, departments, boards, commissions, agencies, institutions, authorities, universities, and bodies politic and corporate thereof; and administrative units or corporate outgrowths of the State government which are created by or pursuant to statute, other than units of local government and their officers, school districts and boards of election commissioners; all administrative units and corporate outgrowths of the above and as may be created by executive order of the Governor.

(b) Each State agency shall scrutinize its rules, administrative regulations, and permitting processes as they pertain to small businesses in order to identify those rules, regulations, and processes that are unreasonable, unduly burdensome, duplicative, or onerous to small businesses. The goal of this review is for each State agency to:

(1) recommend changes that will lessen the reporting and paper work requirements on small businesses while still achieving the intent of the underlying statute;

(2) eliminate unnecessary or antiquated permit requirements;

(3) consolidate duplicative or overlapping permit requirements;

(4) simplify overly complex or lengthy application procedures; and

(5) expedite time-consuming agency review and approval procedures.

(c) Each State agency must conduct its initial review of its rules, regulations, and permitting processes under subsection (b) of this Section within one year of the effective date of this amendatory Act of the 99th General Assembly, and every 5 years thereafter. At the conclusion of each review, each State agency must issue a report containing the results from its review and any recommendations to the Office of Business Permits and Regulatory Assistance, the Governor, and the General Assembly.