§201M-2 Determination of small business impact; small business impact statement. (a) Prior to submitting proposed rules for adoption, amendment, or repeal under section 91-3, the agency shall determine whether the proposed rules affect small business, and if so, the availability and practicability of less restrictive alternatives that could be implemented. This section shall not apply to emergency rulemaking.
(b) If the proposed rules affect small business, the agency shall consider creative, innovative, or flexible methods of compliance for small businesses and prepare a small business impact statement to be submitted with the proposed rules to the departmental advisory committee on small business and the board when the rules are essentially complete and before the rules are submitted to the governor for approval for public hearing. The statement shall provide a reasonable determination of the following:
(c) When a proposed rule includes provisions that are more stringent than those mandated by any comparable or related federal, state, or county standards, the agency shall, in addition to the information required by subsection (b), include in the small business impact statement information comparing the costs and benefits of the standard set by the proposed rule to the costs and benefits of the standard under the comparable or related federal, state, or county law. The agency shall also include an explanation of its decision to impose the higher standard. The agency's comparison and justification shall include:
(5) A comparison of the adverse effects on small businesses of the standard imposed by the proposed rule, with the adverse effects on small business of the related federal, state, or county standard.
(d) This chapter shall not apply to proposed rules adopted by an agency to implement a statute or ordinance that does not require an agency to interpret or describe the requirements of the statute or ordinance, such as federally-mandated regulations that afford the agency no discretion to consider less restrictive alternatives. [L 1998, c 168, pt of §2, §5; am L 2002, c 202, §5; am L 2007, c 217, §3; am L 2008, c 230, §3]