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Tuesday, March 21st, 2017

Republican Legislators Push for Cities to Be Treated as “Tenants of the State”

Author:     Simon Davis-Cohen
Source:     VOX
Publication Date:     Sunday, March 19, 2017
Link: Republican Legislators Push for Cities to Be Treated as “Tenants of the State”
Stephan:   There are so many bad things going on that its is hard to keep it all straight. But I am trying to stay in touch with important but little covered trends. Here's what I mean. Even deep Red value states have blue enclaves; San Antonio and Austin in Texas being examples. The Republican state legislators don't like it. Virtually without public debate they have been slowly trying to turn those Blue urban areas, basically into tenants. Here's the story.  

Right-wing corporate interests are pushing state legislatures to curtail the progressive power of city governments.
Credit: Photo: Pixabay

Right now, there are two bills filed in the Florida legislature that propose sweeping new restrictions on local governments. One (House Bill 17) would bar them from regulating “businesses, professions, and occupations,” the other (SB 1158), would expressly preempt “the regulation of matters relating to commerce, trade, and labor.” The broad language of the bills has local advocates up in arms and newspapers like the Naples Daily News asking whether “local regulations [are] a thing of the past.” The legislative session to discuss and advance the bills began March 7.

Though egregious, what may be most noteworthy about the bills is how ordinary they actually are. Bills like them have become commonplace in the United States.

Local governments have become a battleground, and corporate interests seeking to dampen their influence have been proposing and passing bills like these for years. Countless local minimum wage hikes, worker protection bills, rent laws, police oversight initiatives, fossil fuel extraction bans […]

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