To Tackle Affordability, Georgia’s Next Governor Should Start With Cutting Red Tape

In November, Georgians will elect a new governor. Several issues have come to define this election cycle, and the two candidates’ platforms offer significantly different solutions to the problems facing the state. Former Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms and her opponent Rick Jackson will also have to navigate national referendums on their respective parties. But if there is one central issue of this campaign, it is affordability.

Budget strain is a concern for Georgia businesses and households alike. No matter who occupies the governor’s mansion in 2027, one problem a new administration must address is the growing burden of regulations from the administrative state. 

The cost of regulations appears everywhere. Businesses spend money on compliance, which affects consumers and workers through higher prices, lower wages, fewer job opportunities and reduced investment. These burdens fall harder on small businesses, and even more so on entrepreneurs attempting to enter a market. All of this can leave consumers with fewer choices and higher prices. While regulations are adopted in the name of quality control and public safety, it is often unclear in reality whether they achieve their goals, offer a proportional return on their cost or become irrelevant before they are removed from the books.

A 2024 analysis counted 111,899 regulatory restrictions and approximately 6.3 million words in the state’s compiled rules and regulations, placing Georgia 26th among the states measured. An earlier review, prepared for the Georgians First Commission in 2019, identified 18,160 individual regulations and found that more than half needed review because they were outdated or referred to laws that had already been repealed. In fact, the regulatory code has grown almost every single year since the state began counting over half a century ago. These requirements deserve scrutiny.

The General Assembly made progress this year with the enactment of House Bill 1247. This ended judicial deference to state agencies’ interpretations of laws and regulations, requiring courts to exercise independent judgment. It also strengthened lawmakers’ ability to challenge agency rules.

The law further requires covered agencies to report on their existing rules to the Office of Planning and Budget by July 1, 2028, and every five years thereafter. These reports must examine rules’ impact, cost, effectiveness and opportunities for streamlining. The reporting requirement is subject to appropriations and includes exemptions, so its implementation deserves continued attention.

The next step should be to make regular review a part of Georgia’s regulatory process.

Georgia should establish a small, permanent regulatory management office to coordinate that work across the executive branch. Agencies have expertise in their respective fields, but they may lack the incentive, capacity or government-wide perspective necessary to evaluate regulatory burdens consistently.

Such an office should establish standards for economic analysis, scrutinize agencies’ findings and maintain a transparent database of proposed rules and review reports. This office’s performance could be measured by practical results like lower compliance costs, shorter approval times and the removal of unnecessary requirements.

Virginia’s Office of Regulatory Management is a helpful model. In 2025, its governor’s office reported that the ORM had helped reduce regulatory requirements by more than a quarter. It estimated annual savings of $1.2 billion, a reduction of more than $24,000 in the cost of constructing a new home and substantially shorter approval times for certain permits and professional licenses.

Georgia should also require affirmative legislative approval before particularly costly regulations take effect. When a proposed rule exceeds a defined cost threshold, elected legislators should have to approve it. This would build on HB 1247’s oversight provisions by requiring elected lawmakers to take responsibility for the most consequential regulations before businesses and consumers bear their costs.

Finally, Georgia should apply its Administrative Procedure Act more broadly to require all executive agencies to follow it. The APA provides safeguards such as public notice, opportunities to comment and legislative review. Agency exemptions mean those protections vary depending on which part of the state government is writing the rules.

House Bill 903 proposed extending the APA to nearly all executive-branch entities authorized to adopt rules or decide contested cases. That language passed the House but did not become law. Lawmakers should revisit the proposal and require exemptions to be justified individually.

Necessary protections should withstand scrutiny of their effectiveness and costs, but outdated or unnecessarily burdensome rules should be revised or removed. That principle should not depend on which party controls the governor’s office. While the General Assembly now has greater oversight authority, much work remains, and our next governor will inherit Georgia’s regulatory burdens as well as an opportunity to reduce them.