1. For the purpose of this section, "small business" means a business entity organized for profit, including but not limited to an individual, partnership, corporation, joint venture, association, or cooperative, to which the following apply:
a. It is not an affiliate or subsidiary of a business dominant in its field of operation.
b. It has either twenty or fewer full-time equivalent positions or not more than the equivalent of one million dollars in annual gross revenues in the preceding fiscal year.
c. It does not involve the operation of a farm and does not involve the practice of a profession.
For purposes of this definition, "dominant in its field of operation" means having more than twenty full-time equivalent positions and more than one million dollars in annual gross revenues, and "affiliate or subsidiary of a business dominant in its field of operation" means a business which is at least twenty percent owned by a business dominant in its field of operation, or by partners, officers, directors, majority stockholders, or their equivalent, of a business dominant in that field of operation.
2. If an agency proposes a rule which may have an impact on small business, the agency shall comply with the additional notice provisions of subsection 3 and the analysis requirements of subsection 4.
3. The agency shall include in its notice in the Iowa administrative bulletin that the proposed rulemaking may have an impact on small business. The agency shall notify those small businesses or organizations of small businesses who have registered with the agency requesting notification. An agency shall issue a regulatory flexibility analysis of a proposed rule if, within twenty days after the published notice of proposed rule adoption, a written request for the analysis is filed with the appropriate agency by the administrative rules review committee, the governor, a political subdivision, at least twenty-five persons signing the request, who qualify as a small business, or a registered organization representing at least twenty-five persons.
4. The agency shall consider each of the following methods for reducing the impact of the proposed rule on small business:
a. Establishing less stringent compliance or reporting requirements in the rule for small business.
b. Establishing less stringent schedules or deadlines in the rule for compliance or reporting requirements for small business.
c. Consolidating or simplifying the rule's compliance or reporting requirements for small business.
d. Establishing performance standards to replace design or operational standards in the rule for small business.
e. Exempting small business from any or all requirements of the rule.
f. The nature of any reports and the estimated cost of their preparation by small businesses which would be required to comply with the rule.
g. The nature and estimated cost of other measures or investments that would be required by small businesses to comply with the rule.
h. The nature and estimated cost of any professional, legal, consulting or accounting services which small businesses would incur to comply with the rule.
i. The probable costs to the agency and to any other agency of the implementation and enforcement of the proposed rule and any anticipated effect on state revenue.
j. A comparison of the probable costs and benefits of the proposed rule to the probable costs and benefits of inaction.
k. A determination of whether there are less costly methods or less intrusive methods for achieving the purpose of the proposed rule.
l. A description of any alternative methods for achieving the purpose of the proposed rule that were seriously considered by the agency and the reasons they were rejected in favor of the proposed rule.
A concise summary of the regulatory flexibility analysis must be published in the Iowa administrative bulletin twenty days prior to the adoption of the proposed rule. The summary shall contain the place where and the time when interested persons may make an oral presentation on the analysis; and where persons may obtain a full text of the analysis for the cost of reproduction. If the agency has made a good faith effort to comply with the requirements of subsection 3 and this subsection, the rule may not be invalidated on the ground that the contents of the regulatory flexibility analysis are insufficient or inaccurate.
5. The agency shall reduce the impact by using a method provided or requested under subsection 4 if it finds that the methods are legal and feasible in meeting the statutory objectives which are the basis of the proposed rule.
84 Acts, ch 1007, § 1
Referred to in § 17A.32, 17A.33
Section repealed effective July 1, 1999; 98 Acts, ch 1202, §45, 46
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