Yesterday, Ed called into WCHV to talk with Joe Thomas about ‘Removing Barriers to Job Creation for ALL Virginians’ Plan. Listen to the full interview HERE.
On Virginia’s Economy: “This is not a coincidence. We have fallen out of the top 10 states on the ranking for best states for business. We are in the top 10 states for the most onerous licensing regulations for businesses and occupations.”
On Virginia’s Administrative Code: “We have this huge administrative code in Virginia the Virginia Administrative Code is the you know the regulations that govern our lives from the time we get up in the morning until we go to bed at night and if you’re a small business owner, it governs you know everything you do. And if you were to read it cover to cover, Joe it would take you about three months to read it all. Not to understand it all, just to read it all.”
On Barriers to Entry: “In order to become a barber in the Commonwealth of Virginia you need to complete 1500 hours, nine months of state sanctioned training and then pay a fee to get a state license. Now I don’t know about you, Joe, but I have never gotten a second bad haircut from the same barber, and I can figure some of these things out on my own. I want my dentist to have a state license and be state certified in some other areas but these are just barriers to entry.”
On Commonsense Regulations: “One of the functions of government is to protect the safety of workers and consumers and our environment. We can do those things without putting an excessive burden on small businesses that makes it harder for them to hire, to open, to grow, and we need to foster more small business formation and expansion in the Commonwealth, and these common sense approaches and reforms streamlining our regulatory processes, making it easier for small business in particular to comply with them to raise concerns about them, to ease those burdens, will go a long way in job creation in the Commonwealth.”
The Solution: “Removing Barriers to Job Creation for ALL Virginians.” Ed’s plan will bring meaningful reform to remove barriers to job creation, making it easier for businesses to grow and thrive in the Commonwealth. He focuses on standing up for Virginia’s job creators, reforming Virginia’s regulatory climate, reforming occupational licensing and streamlining business formation. Read it HERE.