Mississippi has a ways to go before challenging some of the South’s strongest economies, and
one key reason is more regulation and red tape than its neighbors. New legislation proposed
this session could have helped rein in government red tape, but the most significant bills failed
to gain enough traction. Thus, Mississippi has a long way to go if it wants to unburden itself of
the moniker “the most regulated state in the South.”
In 2018, as part of a national review of state regulations, the Mercatus Center at George Mason
University found Mississippi has nearly 118,000 regulatory restrictions on the books. All told,
the state code book includes 9.3 million words, and it would take about 13 weeks to read if all
one did was read regulations as a full time job.
The biggest regulator in Mississippi, by far, is the Department of Health, with more than 20,000
restrictions. Coming in second is the Department of Human Services, with over 12,000
restrictions. Various state boards, commissions, and examiners have a combined 10,000
restrictions.
These regulations touch every industry in the state and impact each Mississippian in some form
or fashion. The health care and assisted living sectors are particularly highly regulated. Some of
these rules keep our senior citizens safe, but surely others, like restrictions on relocating or
renovating medical facilities, just make the system inflexible, especially during an emergency.
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed deep shortcomings in the regulatory system. To ensure
an adequate amount of health care coverage, governors around the country have been
relaxing—not increasing—regulations. This includes easing restrictions on telemedicine,
recognizing medical licenses from other states, and in some states, rolling back requirements
that health care facilities obtain permission from regulators before adding new equipment like
hospital beds.
Overall, Mississippi’s regulatory load is about average for a typical state, but when compared to
some of its neighbors, a clearer picture emerges. A new Mercatus Center analysis summarizes
data from eight southern states stretching from Kentucky down to Florida and over to
Louisiana. Of these states, Florida has the most regulatory restrictions at 171,000. However, if
one adjusts for the fact that a bigger population tends to generate more regulation, Florida is,
by that measure, actually the least regulated. Of the group, Mississippi has the most regulations
per capita (and the lowest GDP per capita).
More populous states tend to have more industries, denser urban areas, and other factors that
generally contribute to a higher number of regulations. This explains why California, Ohio, New
York, and Texas are all among the five-most regulated states in America, despite having very
different political environments.
Mississippi lawmakers had an opportunity to reduce regulatory burdens. Several bills were
proposed that would have created regulatory reduction pilot programs at various state
agencies. The idea is that a small consortium of agencies should have to measure and track how
much regulation they impose, and then make sensible cuts based on those measurements. If all
goes well, the pilot program can be expanded to other agencies. The state of Virginia has
already implemented a pilot program like this, demonstrating that the idea is feasible,
affordable, and even bipartisan.
None of the various Mississippi proposals made it into law this year. However, governors
around the country have taken action by issuing red-tape reduction executive orders. Gov. Tate
Reeves could start by reviewing regulations suspended in response to COVID-19, as Idaho has
recently done. Or he could take a more aggressive approach, like Gov. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma,
who earlier this year ordered a 25 percent across-the-board regulatory reduction.
Whatever approach is taken, Mississippians need regulatory relief now. The pandemic
continues to ravage the country, and the nation’s regulatory system is simply not up to the task.
There is an opportunity to rectify the situation if our leaders will heed the call.
Brett Kittredge is the Director of Marketing & Communications for Mississippi Center for Public Policy,
the state’s non-partisan, free-market think tank.
