Fixing regulatory rampage will require amendment, say observers

But reforms via statute might help Wisconsin avoid a still more onerous environment

Fixing the damage wreaked by the Wisconsin Supreme Court when it stripped the Legislature of its power to halt bureaucrats’ regulations will take a constitutional amendment, say legal experts — though reforms in statute can help in the interim.

That damage so far includes a rush of new regulations, including a 1,700 percent increase in state fees on livestock auctions and a complex, expensive wholesale revision of the state’s commercial building code .

Lawmakers on the Joint Committee for Review of Administrative Rules had the ability to delay or block such regulations until the Supreme Court ruled 4-3 in July to strip JCRAR of its authority. The bureaucracy may now propose, promulgate and enforce a