Red Tape Relief: Labrynth Names America’s Top 100 Cities for Permitting Performance

Labrynth’s Red Tape City and State Index reveals where projects speed through state capitals and city halls — from Lakeville, MN and Nampa, ID to Fort Wayne, IN — and where red tape is stalling growth

NEW YORK, Sept. 17, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bureaucratic bloat is choking state capitals and city halls across America, but some governors and mayors have figured out how to cut through the paper-pushing. Labrynth, an AI-native company pioneering outcomes-based, transparent Artificial Intelligence to tackle one of the economy’s biggest chokepoints — permitting, licensing, compliance and regulatory approvals — released its inaugural Red Tape City and State Index. The report ranks the Top 100 U.S. cities with populations over 50,000 - and updates rankings for all 50 states - based on how efficiently they handle permitting, licensing and regulatory workflows.

“Today in the U.S., millions of building permits are issued each year, yet in some states and cities, approvals drag on for up to two years, costing billions in lost growth,” said Stuart Lacey, CEO of Labrynth. “Some results surprised us, but others confirmed what we suspected. States and cities like Lakeville, MN and Nampa, ID prove that when leaders cut red tape, growth follows: people move in, businesses invest and tax bases expand. The Red Tape City and State Index isn’t just a scoreboard, it’s a wake-up call: clear the path for builders and businesses or get left behind.”

Eliminating Red Tape
The Red Tape City and State Index uses a composite measure that ranks all 50 states using a weighted blend of factors that influence permitting and business climate. The methodology assigns the greatest weight to business friendliness and permit rank, while also factoring in fiscal health, land use, labor, population growth, affordability, infrastructure, and cost of doing business. Because these categories are weighted differently, the resulting scores are not strictly sequential—meaning a state with a lower raw score may still rank below another if it underperforms in higher-weighted areas. This ensures the Index reflects the full picture of how overall state conditions support or hinder growth. The rankings are fully auditable and refreshed quarterly. Below are the results:

Top 10 Performing Cities (in the Top 100)

Top 10 Performing States

“These cities and states are doing more than cutting red ribbon—they're cutting waste,” said Lacey. “They’re showing what smart government looks like when it's designed for speed and transparency—not delay and confusion.”

Red and Blue States
The top performers in the Red Tape Top 100 City Index span the political spectrum, from red states to blue states to battlegrounds. “It’s about permits, not partisanship. It’s about Process and not Policy. Whether you’re a progressive coastal mayor or leading a conservative heartland city, if you can’t move at the speed of business, you lose. Smart governance isn’t political, it’s practical,” said Lacey.

Permits Power Cities
Permitting may seem like bureaucracy on the surface, but it is the foundation of economic development. Faster permits mean more construction, more jobs, higher tax revenue and stronger public services.
Lacey added, “When permitting is slow, it’s not just the developer who suffers. It’s the plumber who doesn’t get hired, the tenant who can’t move in and the city budget that doesn’t get filled.”

Cities and states that streamline permitting enjoy real-world benefits, including new jobs in construction and development, increased business openings, higher property turnover and more funding for essential services like schools, roads and housing. The outcome is not just economic—it’s visible in more job opportunities, faster growth and better livability.

Streaming Permitting Is Already Working
Labrynth helps local governments flip permitting from a bottleneck into a growth engine. The Red Tape City and State Index itself is powered by AI-assisted data ingestion and process mining. One city already taking action based on the Index is Lancaster, California. Labrynth partnered with the city to deploy an AI-powered permitting assistant that streamlines development workflows, eliminates document errors and drastically reduces turnaround times.

“Our goal is to become the easiest city in California to build in,” said Lancaster Mayor Rex Parris. “Labrynth’s tools aren’t just about speed—they’re about making the experience clearer for both applicants and our own staff, unlocking innovation at a breakneck pace.”

Lancaster’s pilot program marks the first of several initiatives Labrynth will undertake with municipalities nationwide to help cities move up the rankings and become magnets for private investment and sustainable growth.

Red Tape Readiness Assessments: Governors and Mayors: Are You In or Out?
Cities that did not make the Top 100 still have time to ensure their reported data is accurate before the Top 500 is published in 30 days followed by the entire City Index before year-end: likely a wake up call for many cities near the bottom.

Labrynth is now offering Red Tape Readiness Assessments for governors, state workers, mayors and other government leaders who want to modernize, simplify and attract more development without overhauling their legacy system. Interested cities can visit www.redtapeindex.com to register through the submission portal. Municipal leaders are asked to submit or verify core permitting and licensing data and join a growing network of forward-thinking governments committed to cutting delays, improving efficiency and driving economic growth through smart regulation.

About Labrynth
Labrynth is the first transparent AI company purpose-built to solve regulatory bottlenecks at scale. Its outcome-based models compress permitting timelines, reduce compliance risks and unlock faster revenue for PROPEL industries and local governments. Spun out from AI and agentic innovation powerhouse Invisible Technologies, and backed by AI HoldCo platform Infinity Constellation, Labrynth blends cutting-edge AI with human expertise to build a smarter, faster, and fairer regulatory system. Learn more at www.labrynth.ai.

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