I spent a year at the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The number of statutes and regulations for just CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) [1] for example fills 425 pages. The department also oversees building codes, liquid pipeline infrastructure, wildlands defense, fire & rescue, etc.
Whenever a new or amended statute is introduced it takes months to evaluate if it replaces or conflicts with existing code. If passed and signed into law it can take a year or more to integrate.
Every year a newly-elected legislator introduces a bill akin to simplifying existing laws. Every year these bills never make it out of committee (i.e., they are shelved) because it would require years of pulling committed resources (SMEs, analysts, support personnel and millions of dollars) out of threadbare operations.
Every department in the State draws up a similar analysis, and the cumulative cost scares the legislature/governor. But it's a good way to introduce the green legislator into how the state government works.
The joke in the halls of the Natural Resources building is that there are too many rules and regulations, but there are not enough resources to correct the situation.
F&FP had no central repository of its own codes. Analysts had to use keyword searches of the public California Codes website!
[1] http://resources.ca.gov/ceqa/docs/2014_CEQA_Statutes_and_Gui...