The Georgia State Senate approved a new state bill on Feb. 24 that is currently under review by the House of Representatives. The bill’s chief sponsor, Senator Greg Dolezal, introduced the bill on Jan. 27, naming it the ‘Red Tape Rollback Act of 2025.’ The day after it was introduced, Dolezal met with Lt. Gov. Burt Jones and filmed an informational Instagram video, stating the bill focuses on making the state’s government more efficient by cutting government spending to boost the economy and support small businesses.
The Red Tape Act of 2025 will require state agencies to review their rules and regulations every four years and reduce compliance and paperwork burdens on small businesses. State agencies will be expected to account for the economic impact their rules have on the local and state scale. The evaluation of rules will also be more receptive to cost, effectiveness and public input.
“What this bill recognizes is that if left unchecked, rules tend to layer on top of rules on rules. Before you know it, you don’t necessarily know what those rules are.” – Senator Greg Dolezal
In support of small businesses, the bill will give local governments the right to request small business analysis for pending rules to understand how a new rule or regulation will affect the local economy. These analyses will look at potential financial risks of businesses in regard to a pending bill created by state agencies to create a process of financial assessments and recovery strategies.
During the State Senate’s debate over the bill on Feb. 24, Dolezal added that the bill requires agencies to look at their composition frequently to “make sure that the rules are accomplishing the goals and best serving all citizens.”
At the same debate, Senator Kim Jackson disagreed with Dolezal.
“Our agencies are not crippled by rules; they are crippled by our lack of funding,” Jackson said. “Asking our agencies to add another task, another burden every four years does not help them or our people”
Jackson added that the state agencies are already complaining about being underfunded and understaffed, and that additional cuts will be detrimental to them if they can’t perform tasks efficiently.
Another issue Jackson and many other senators saw with this bill was local and state accountability. With a decrease in state rules, regulation and restriction, there is an automatic decrease in accountability in state agencies and local businesses.
Accountability directly affects the impact agency compliance and paperwork has on small businesses. It can pile costs and administrative burden, which limits business growth. If a business fails to comply with agency laws, owners can face fines and legal problems leading to financial strain.
Decreasing accountability burdens on businesses can prove to be confusing and less efficient than the regulations currently in place. Less restriction can cause confusion for business owners finding what is permitted and what is not, potentially creating more legal concerns.
Small businesses make up for 99.7% of all businesses and 41.3% of the employment rate as of 2024 in Georgia, according to the U.S. Office of Advocacy. Local businesses did not want to come forward to talk about how they are currently being affected by state agency regulations and how the bill might affect them in the future.
