From the Department of Government Efficiency in America to Javier Milei in Argentina, cutting down burdensome regulations is back in fashion worldwide.

Yet before Milei took his chainsaw to government spending and DOGE sparked a debate on government waste and overregulation, Ohio was already leading one of America’s most impressive deregulatory efforts.

A few years ago, Gov. Mike DeWine signed a package of laws to cut nearly one-third of the state’s regulatory code.

The aim: Save Ohio taxpayers approximately $44 million and 58,000 hours of labor for the state government over the next decade.

The plan: Order all state agencies to reduce their existing regulations by 30% by June 2025. If an agency didn’t meet that goal, it would have to cut two regulations for everyone it added to the books.

The results: As of October 2024, all but four of Ohio’s state agencies hit their yearly goal to cut regulations by 20% — and the Buckeye economy has soared.

Ohio is on track to fulfill its 2025 goal — but the road to get there wasn’t easy.

It took a dire situation, courageous political leadership, and a vigorous campaign from Americans for Prosperity and partners like the Buckeye Institute and the National Federation of Independent Business to turn Ohio from a state limited by endless regulations to one where economic freedom is the law of the land.

DROWNED IN REGULATIONS

A few years ago, regulations smothered businesses, hurt the economy, and prevented the state from reaching its full potential.

Ohio had the fourth-biggest regulatory code in the country before the cuts.

The bevy of regulations crushed thousands of Ohio businesses.

Over 246,000 rules and regulations were in place, forcing businesses to spend $60,000 per year to navigate this bureaucratic maze.

Starting a business is already challenging and expensive, especially during the high inflation of the Biden years. Spending tens of thousands of dollars to comply with antiquated rules and regulations made it even worse for Ohio businesses.

Overregulation kept investments away from the state and bled dry thousands of businesses there.
Something had to be done. Thankfully, AFP was at the ready.

AFP COMES TO THE SCENE

In 2018, AFP Ohio knew that cutting down the state’s nightmarish regulatory scheme would bring more businesses, jobs, and prosperity to the Buckeye State.

As AFP’s Ohio state director, Donovan O’Neil, said at the time:

“The size of the regulatory state is inhibiting entrepreneurship, inhibiting innovation, inhibiting the growth and economic opportunity here in Ohio. This is something that we can tackle.”

And tackle it we did.

AFP took action, leveraging its permanent grassroots army and unmatched data capabilities by:

• Empowering grassroots activists to lobby their lawmakers, training and bringing them to the state capitol to meet their lawmakers and have important conversations about how the regulatory burden impacted their businesses and communities.
• Mobilizing our grassroots army and working with policy champions like state Senators Kristina Roegner and Rob McColley in a statewide advocacy campaign to push for this historic reform.
• Providing public testimony in both the state House and the state Senate. For example, AFP-Ohio’s Legislative Director went to the state’s House of Representatives and delivered key testimony to get this bill through.

Thanks to AFP’s relentless efforts and the support of key decision-makers who share our vision of less government and more freedom, the state legislature passed a set of bills to scrap thousands of regulations and unleash the Buckeye economy.

OHIO’S ECONOMY IS FLOURISHING

Although Gov. DeWine signed this landmark legislation only two years ago, the deregulation is already showing signs of success.

Unsurprisingly, when the government gets out of the way and burdensome regulations are axed, businesses prosper and people thrive.

• Between January 2022 and December 2024, the Ohio economy added more than 170,000 jobs.
• Ohio’s gross domestic product grew by over 13% in the last three years.
• The manufacturing sector created over 20,000 jobs between 2022 and 2024.
• Real median household income grew by more than $3,000 between 2022 and 2024

Ohio is a clear example of how cutting red tape and fighting against inertia and bureaucracy can enormously benefit hardworking Americans.

But AFP isn’t stopping in Ohio. We’re mobilizing our nationwide grassroots army to push for freedom-oriented policies at both the federal and state levels to improve the lives of millions of Americans.

We already did that in Kansas. If you’d like to learn more about how our team mobilized to get the state legislature to pass the REINS Act and restore the power of the people over that of unelected bureaucrats, click here to watch the video.