Christie Red Tape Review Spawns More Red Tape

Christie gets big in California (photo credit: Star Ledger)

While the Cat is away the Rats will play!

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno takes the oath of Office

With Governor Christie out of Town yesterday doing the Opra Show and other orchestrated political stunts, Lt. Governor Guadagno (AKA “Red Tape Czar””), got into the Christie “decider” spirit and did some first rate State House ordering and directing. 

Guadagno issued an Executive Order of her own (click to see EO # 41).

Just like Dick Cheney who led the Bush search team for Vice President and found himself, Guadagno named herself as Chair of a new Red Tape Review Commission.

The Guadagno Order creates more bureaucracy and more centralized, politicized, murky, and unaccountable  review processes:.

The Order states: 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, KIM GUADAGNO, Acting Governor of the State of New Jersey, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and by the Statutes of this State, do hereby ORDER and DIRECT:

1. A Red Tape Review Commission (“Review Commission”) is hereby established. The Department of State shall provide support to the Review Commission from existing staff and resources.

Guadagno seems blissfully oblivious to the supreme irony that her 90 day temporary Red Tape Review Task Force has now created more permanent Red Tape!

The Order grants the new Red Tape Commission a very broad mandate.

The Order lacks any procedural or substantive safeguards to protect the public interest, promote ethics and transparency, or limit behind the scenes influence of powerful special interests. 

While the Order calls for 3 public hearings per year, there are no requirements that the Red Tape Commission abide by open public meetings, sunshine, or ethics laws.

There are no conflict of interest restrictions on Commission members.

There are no requirements that the Commisison meet and deliberate openly and comply with Open Public Records laws.

We view this Commission as a back channnel for secret business community attacks on regulatory protections.

The only positive aspect I see is that the Commission appears to be limited to review of existing rules and regulations and was provided no role in developing new regulations. 

However, there are no prohibitions on the Commission intervening in:

• 1) the rulemaking process for new rules; 
• 2) the reauthorization of existing rules; 
• 3) pending DEP permit decisions or enforcement actions; or
• 4) rate making processes of BPU .

And that ambiguity is a HUGE problem.