Sandoval seeks repeal of 654 regulations

CARSON CITY -- Gov. Brian Sandoval on Thursday recommended the repeal of 654 Nevada regulations that he said are either unneeded or a drag on economic growth.

Among them: a rule requiring labels on toilets in manufactured buildings advising of maximum water use per flush. The state Manufactured Housing Division concluded that the regulation is duplicative and unnecessary.

Another recommendation would abolish a requirement that all driver training schools have a physical location in the state. With the growth of Internet-based schools, officials say, mandating a brick-and-mortar site to do business "constitutes an unnecessary burden with little or no increased consumer protection," the governor's office said in a statement.

Of the hundreds of rules targeted for repeal, 137 involve the Department of Business and Industry, 120 fall under the Department of Motor Vehicles, and 95 are under the Department of Taxation.

The recommendations come after a yearlong effort that began minutes after the first-term Republican governor was sworn in on Jan. 3, 2011.

Sandoval signed an executive order imposing a one-year freeze on all regulations while his Cabinet reviewed the state's regulatory mandates to determine whether rules were still needed; whether they had any negative affect on businesses; and whether the public value outweighed the cost of the regulation itself.

Besides targeting hundreds for repeal, the governor said Thursday that more than 1,000 others should be condensed or updated.

"With my executive order, I established a set of regulatory priorities for this administration -- namely to protect the health and welfare of the people of Nevada without discouraging economic growth," Sandoval said.

The process of cleaning up the regulation manual will require public hearings and could take about six months to complete, administration officials said.

The regulation freeze is no longer in place, but Sandoval ordered all regulatory bodies to notify his office of any future proposals and explain how they are relevant to the governor's economic development goals.