Pre-empting the power of local governments is becoming a standard part of the legislative playbook in many states—including Louisiana—where Republicans who control statehouses are looking to block or overturn the actions of leaders, and even voters, in municipalities that are often more liberal, The New York Times reports.
So-called pre-emption laws have barred cities from regulating landlords, building municipal broadband systems and raising the minimum wage. In the past two years, eight Republican-dominated states, most recently Alabama and Oklahoma, have prevented cities from mandating paid sick leave for workers, and a new law in Arkansas forbids municipalities from protecting gays and lesbians from discrimination.
Already this year, bills introduced in six more states, including Michigan, Missouri and South Carolina, seek to do the same. At least five states have pre-empted local regulation of e-cigarettes. And in New Mexico, the restaurant industry supports a modest increase to the minimum wage only if the state stops cities from mandating higher minimums.
More recently, the restaurant industry is leading the fight to block municipalities from increasing the minimum wage or enacting paid sick leave ordinances in more than a dozen states, including Louisiana, Florida and Oklahoma.
“Businesses are operating in an already challenging regulatory environment,” Scott DeFife, the head of government affairs for the National Restaurant Association, tells The New York Times. “The state legislature is the best place to determine wage and hour law. This is not the kind of policy that should be determined jurisdiction by jurisdiction.”Often these efforts are driven by industry, which finds it easier to wield influence in 50 capitols than in thousands of city halls, says Mark Pertschuk, director of Grassroots Change, which opposes pre-emption of public health measures.
The strategy was pioneered by tobacco companies 30 years ago to override local smoking bans. It was adopted by the National Rifle Association, which has succeeded in preventing local gun regulations in almost every state. Read the full story.
