Most people understand intuitively that the best government is one closest to the people, but a lot of legislators seem to have forgotten that simple tenet.
Lawmaking designed to strip local governments of regulatory authority has become commonplace in many state legislatures, including our own. It’s called pre-emptive legislation, and while the tactic is most commonly used at the behest of industry lobbyists to protect profits, it’s also employed in ideological crusades — the infamous bathroom bill in North Carolina comes to mind.
In Michigan, lawmakers have only threatened such a bill, but the GOP majority has used the tactic to prevent cities from regulating everything from wages to guns to factory farms.
The latest target? Plastic grocery bags. This month, the Senate passed a bill mostly along party lines that would prohibit local governments from regulating the sale of plastic bags and food containers. SB 853 now goes to the House Commerce and Trade Committee.
With the state’s largest school district on the verge of collapse and our roads and bridges crumbling around us, it would be fair to ask why lawmakers are wasting the people’s time with this issue.
The answer seems to be that Michigan lawmakers, particularly Republicans, don’t see it as the people’s time, and they apparently don’t care about the people’s priorities.
The bill’s lead sponsor, Midland Republican Jim Stamas, won’t say which businesses have sought his assistance in pushing the legislation, but he’s unabashed in his rationale.
“This legislation would allow any of the corporations or businesses to make that type of decision on their own to do that,” Stamas said in an interview on Michigan Radio. “But it doesn’t put in place different standards in local areas across the state.”
To read the full story, visit http://www.grandhaventribune.com/Editorial/2016/05/18/Paper-or-plastic-Let-locals-decide.