Barry Rabe spoke to Michigan Radio about governor-elect Rick Snyder’s plan to streamline government regulations for Michigan businesses. Supporters of Snyder’s plan say the reduction of red tape will help Michigan businesses compete better, but Rabe cautions against moving too quickly.
"Streamlining is an intriguing word. It is a word invoked often in political campaigns. I'm not sure there's been a candidate for gubernatorial office from either party in any of the Great Lakes states in the last twenty years who has not talked about the desirability of some form of streamlining. The devil is in the details in what that means,” Rabe told Michigan Radio.
Rabe continued, "I don't think we would want to streamline permits process that moves so rapidly that any firm could do anything that it wanted at any time and perhaps increase the likelihood of a mistake or a spill or something along those lines. So, that's the potential downside of streamlining. If you cut your staff so quickly, put so much pressure on them to rubber-stamp anything that comes across their desk, there can really be some risks and some negative consequences."