Unfunded mandates have cost states $35 billion, report says

Regulators have cost states nearly $35 billion in unfunded mandates and 75 million hours in burdensome paperwork since President Obama took office, according to a new report from the conservative leaning American Action Forum (AAF).

In its report, the AAF said it could only find $1.7 billion in unfunded state regulatory burdens through the White House website, but in tracking every regulation on its own, the group found another $33.2 billion in regulatory mandates on states for a total of $34.9 billion.

“This figure only examines the largest regulations that impose unfunded state mandates and there are doubtless other rules that impose costs on local governments that might not be counted in these data,” the report said.

But Public Citizen, a more liberal leaning group, said the report is a misleading, with incomplete analysis that ignores the benefits of health and safety laws and regulations.

“Imagine if grocery shoppers decided to buy no groceries simply because they cost money,” Amit Narang, Public Citizen’s regulatory policy advocate, said in a statement. “That’s the type of policy decision-making AAF appears to be endorsing with this one-sided analysis.”