Kentucky Needs Regulatory Transparency Now

Kentucky’s businesses and lawmakers are often operating in the dark when it comes to regulation.

Regulation is the code that governs the most basic operations of Kentucky businesses. It sometimes exists in books that sit in drawers across multiple government boards and agencies. The register has been posted online, but finding the complete and coherent set of rules that govern the voluntary sector of our economy is a substantial challenge.

Kentucky legislators trying to review agency rulemaking face a byzantine system where regulations are scattered, guidance documents remain hidden, and the cumulative burden on citizens and businesses is unmeasured.

It’s at best grossly inefficient. At worst, it denies lawmakers the ability to engage in meaningful oversight and saps economic dynamism, putting Kentucky at a serious economic disadvantage.

Kentucky needs a Regulatory Budget Office and a dramatic increase in regulatory transparency sooner than later.

A neighboring commonwealth, Virginia, has already shown us a path forward.

The Virginia Regulatory Town Hall lists all new regulations and guidance document amendments while also cataloguing existing guidance, and the Virginia Legislative Information System provides the entire Virginia Administrative Code as currently enacted.

Virginia's groundbreaking Permit Transparency platform provides a centralized system to track the daily status and timeline of critical steps in the permitting process, setting a new standard for regulatory transparency. Kentucky must follow suit—not just for permits, but for our entire regulatory framework.

The separation of powers demands nothing less. When executive agencies create regulations with the force of law, our elected representatives must have the tools to provide meaningful oversight. Yet how can legislators evaluate whether a regulation serves the public interest when they can't easily access the full regulatory code or track how agencies interpret and enforce these rules through guidance documents? The information asymmetry tilts the balance of power dangerously toward the executive branch, allowing regulators to effectively legislate without key accountability.

Virginia has already streamlined its regulatory burden by 35%, saving Virginians $1.4 billion annually. Creating a Regulatory Budget Office would create an opportunity for Kentucky to reap similar savings.

Virginia’s success came not from blind deregulation, but from transparency that enabled informed decision-making about which rules provide value and which merely impose costs.

For businesses, regulatory uncertainty is a growth killer.

Companies need predictability to invest, expand, and create jobs. When regulations and their interpretations exist in shadows—accessible only to those with specialized knowledge or expensive consultants—small businesses suffer most. As one Virginia official noted, businesses require careful planning, and "it's impossible to plan if good information isn't readily available.”

An online, searchable regulatory database would level the playing field. Entrepreneurs could understand their obligations before investing capital. Existing businesses could ensure compliance without guesswork. And when agencies issue guidance that effectively changes regulatory requirements, affected parties would know immediately rather than discovering violations after the fact.

This isn't about eliminating necessary protections—it's about smart governance. Environmental safeguards, worker protections, and consumer safety rules serve vital purposes. But without transparency, we can't distinguish essential regulations from accumulated bureaucratic cruft that stifles innovation while providing minimal public benefit.

Virginia literally wrote the book on state regulatory analysis, creating straightforward guides that any state could repurpose. These resources prove that effective regulatory review doesn't require an economics PhD—just commitment to transparency and systematic analysis. Kentucky could adapt these proven approaches while building our own comprehensive online platform.

The benefits are manifold. Virginia's Department of Professional and Occupational Regulation reduced license processing times from 33 days to 5 days, while its Department of Environmental Quality cut permit processing times by 65%. These efficiency gains came from transparency that revealed bottlenecks and redundancies previously hidden in bureaucratic black boxes. Here in Kentucky, air permitting requirements can take as long as 255 days–it is difficult to believe processes like these can’t be improved.

Kentucky can continue operating with an opaque regulatory system that empowers agencies, confuses businesses, and prevents effective oversight. Or the Commonwealth can join Virginia in saving taxpayers’ dollars while also giving entrepreneurs a fair shake from their own government.

Our legislature should mandate the creation of a comprehensive online regulatory platform, including all administrative regulations, guidance documents, interpretive letters, and permit applications. This system should be searchable, regularly updated, and designed for both human users and AI analysis tools.

The technology exists. The model works. Kentucky needs only the political will to bring our regulatory system into the light. Our businesses, taxpayers, and democratic institutions deserve nothing less.

Caleb O. Brown is the CEO of the Bluegrass Institute. Reeve T. Bull is the Director of Virginia's Office of Regulatory Management.