202-B - Regulatory flexibility for small businesses.
§ 202-b. Regulatory flexibility for small businesses. 1. In developing a rule, the agency shall consider utilizing approaches that will accomplish the objectives of applicable statutes while minimizing any adverse economic impact of the rule on small businesses and local governments. Consistent with the objectives of applicable statutes, the agency shall consider such approaches as: (a) the establishment of differing compliance or reporting requirements or timetables that take into account the resources available to small businesses and local governments; (b) the use of performance rather than design standards; and (c) an exemption from coverage by the rule, or by any part thereof, for small businesses and local governments so long as the public health, safety or general welfare is not endangered. 2. In proposing a rule for adoption or in adopting a rule on an emergency basis, the agency shall issue a regulatory flexibility analysis regarding the rule being proposed for adoption or the emergency rule being adopted. A copy of such analysis and any finding, and reasons for such finding, pursuant to subdivision three of this section, shall be submitted to the governor, the temporary president of the senate, the speaker of the assembly, the office of business permits and regulatory assistance and the administrative regulations review commission at the time such analysis is submitted to the secretary of state for publication and, upon written request, a copy shall be sent to any other person. Each regulatory flexibility analysis shall contain: (a) a description of the types and an estimate of the number of small businesses and local governments to which the rule will apply; (b) a description of (i) the reporting, recordkeeping and other compliance requirements of the rule, and (ii) the kinds of professional services that a small business or local government is likely to need in order to comply with such requirements; (c) an estimate of the initial capital costs and an estimate of the annual cost of complying with the rule, with an indication of any likely variation in such costs for small businesses or local governments of different types and of differing sizes; (d) an assessment of the economic and technological feasibility of compliance with such rule by small businesses and local governments; (e) an indication of how the rule is designed to minimize any adverse economic impact of such rule on small businesses and local governments, including information regarding whether the approaches suggested in subdivision one of this section or other similar approaches were considered; and (f) a statement indicating how the agency complied with subdivision six of this section. 3. (a) This section shall not apply to any rule defined in subparagraph (ii) of paragraph (a) of subdivision two of section one hundred two of this chapter, nor shall it apply to any rule which does not impose an adverse economic impact on small businesses or local governments and which the agency finds would not impose reporting, recordkeeping or other compliance requirements on small businesses or local governments. The agency's finding and the reasons upon which the finding was made, including what measures the agency took to ascertain that the rule would not impose such compliance requirements, or adverse economic impact on small businesses or local governments, shall be included in the rule making notice as required by section two hundred two of this chapter. (b) A rule determined by an agency to be a consensus rule and proposed pursuant to subparagraph (i) of paragraph (b) of subdivision one ofsection two hundred two of this article shall be exempt from the requirements of this section. 4. In order to avoid duplicative action, an agency may consider a series of closely related rules as one rule for the purpose of complying with subdivision two of this section. 5. In complying with the provisions of subdivision two of this section, an agency may provide either a quantifiable or numerical description of the effects of a rule or more general descriptive statements if quantification is not practicable or reliable. 6. When any rule is proposed for which a regulatory flexibility analysis is required, the agency shall assure that small businesses and local governments have been given an opportunity to participate in the rule making through such activities as: (a) the publication of a general notice for the proposed rule making in publications likely to be obtained by small businesses and local governments of the types affected by the proposed rule; (b) the direct notification of interested small businesses and local governments affected by the proposed rule; (c) the conduct of special open conferences concerning the proposed rule for small businesses and local governments affected by the rule; and (d) the adoption or modification of agency procedural rules to reduce the cost or complexity of participation in the rule making by small businesses and local governments. 7. Each agency shall issue a revised regulatory flexibility analysis when: (i) the information presented in the analysis submitted pursuant to this section is inadequate or incomplete, provided, however, such revised analysis shall be submitted as soon as practicable to the secretary of state for publication in the state register, provided, further, if such statement exceeds two thousand words, the notice shall include only a summary of such statement in less than two thousand words; (ii) a proposed rule contains any substantial revisions and such revisions necessitate that such analysis be modified; or (iii) there are no substantial revisions in the proposed rule but there are changes in the text of the rule as adopted when compared with the text of the latest published version of the proposed rule and such changes would necessitate that such analysis be modified. 8. The governor's office of regulatory reform shall issue quarterly reports to the governor and the legislature identifying the alternative approaches utilized by state agencies to minimize any adverse economic impact of rules on small businesses and local governments, in accordance with subdivision one of this section.