Policy Agenda

Kentucky’s regulatory environment imposes cumulative costs on businesses, workers, and consumers that are rarely evaluated after initial enactment. While the state already requires regulations to sunset after seven years, agencies can unilaterally continue their own rules without meaningful review or accountability. This process favors regulatory accumulation and limits the legislature’s ability to ensure rules remain necessary and cost-effective.

The 2027 session should strengthen this framework by requiring legislative reauthorization for regulations to continue beyond their sunset date. Rather than allowing agencies to self- certify their own rules, the legislature would affirmatively extend regulations that demonstrate continued public benefit while allowing outdated or ineffective rules to expire. Narrow exemptions would apply for regulations implementing federal mandates or governing immediate public safety functions. Outside those categories, agencies seeking reauthorization would bear the burden of demonstrating continued necessity and cost-effectiveness.

Kentucky should also require that all agency guidance documents, including policy letters, interpretive memoranda, and compliance directives, be published in a centralized, publicly searchable online repository. Documents not included in this repository should be unenforceable against regulated parties who lacked notice of their existence. Regulated parties, particularly small businesses, should be able to identify and understand the rules that apply to them without relying on informal channels or legal counsel to navigate agency expectations.

Together, these reforms establish a regulatory environment built on accountability and transparency. When regulations must earn continued legislative approval and agency expectations are fully public, compliance becomes fairer and costs decline.