On February 12, 2008, Governor Strickland issued Executive Order 2008-04S PDF, "Implementing Common Sense Business Regulation" ("CSBR"). CSBR is a component of Governor Strickland's regulatory reform initiative, called "Advantage Ohio."
Advantage Ohio seeks to streamline and ease the burden of state government regulation on the Ohio economy, while fully preserving the underlying objectives of that regulation.
Advantage Ohio is an across-the-board approach to regulatory reform. It addresses the existing body of state regulations, the rulemaking process, rule implementation and administration, administrative adjudication, and transactions with state government in line with the principles of Common Sense Business Regulation.
In Executive Order 2008-04S, the Governor placed an emphasis on agencies that impact the public and businesses, and required each of them to designate a Regulatory Ombudsman to act as a problem-solving liaison between the agency and those affected by its rules and processes. Those agencies are: Administrative Services, Agriculture, Commerce, Development, Environmental Protection, Health, Industrial Commission, Insurance, Job and Family Services, Natural Resources, Taxation, Transportation, and Workers' Compensation. Since Executive Order 2008-04S was issued, these agencies have been reviewing their rules based upon the CSBR criteria, as well as reaching out to regulated stakeholders and working to reduce processing and response times.
From the Governor's issuance of the Executive Order until June 1, 2009, the 13 agencies listed above conducted over 2,300 reviews of rules using CSBR principles, according to agency self-reporting. Out of the more than 2,300 reviews, approximately 2,119 rules were reviewed, 158 rules were eliminated, 1,035 rules were modified, 224 rules were modified to be easier to understand, 100 rules were modified or eliminated to be more focused on the desired regulatory outcome, and 91 rules were eliminated or modified in order to be based on the best scientific or technical data.