State Regulation: The ‘Other’ White Meat

We are all familiar by now with the process of passing legislation. It has been compared to the process of “making sausage.” This legislative process usually involves multiple hearings, citizen input, negotiations with lobbyists and other internal workings that take a bill from the drop box to the desk of the governor for signature. You win some bits, you lose some bits, and you hope at the end that a workable compromise has been reached for all parties involved. This can resemble the slaughterhouse at times, with the perfect sausage in its snug casing hiding myriad less-clean processes that went into its making. It is, however, a fairly transparent process on full grisly view. After your legislature enacts legislation, the Executive Branch and applicable state agencies must implement it. The law provides only the outline of a program, and it is the responsibility of the Executive Branch, through the...