Lawmakers creating an all-powerful nanny state at the expense of local government

Florida’s annual exercise in representative democracy begins next week. A worrisome question is how well the people’s wishes will actually be represented.

That will be up to the men and women elected to the Florida Legislature. When the 2020 session is gaveled in Tuesday, will they continue trying to crush the will of locally elected governments?

It appears so, though we’re still hoping lawmakers remember their eighth-grade civics and end their preemption binge.

Preemption is when the state uses its powers to usurp laws passed by counties and municipalities.

Those local governing bodies know their citizens’ wishes better than the state. Just don’t tell that to lawmakers in Tallahassee. They’ve turned preemption into a naked power grab.

Integrity Florida, a nonprofit government research group, released a report Monday that noted 119 preemptive bills have been filed in the past three years. Those state measures addressed everything from minimum wages to plastic grocery bags to suntan lotion to tree trimming.

Views on every issue vary, especially in a diverse state like Florida. If you recall your middle school civics, the Founding Fathers set up our federalist system to address divergent needs and desires.

James Madison and his cohorts were thinking on a national level, but the principle of home rule applies in states. Mount Dora is not Miami, and Florida should allow local governments as much power and autonomy as possible.

There are limits, of course. Local laws must be constitutional, and in some instances a patchwork of 67 regulations in 67 counties can be onerous.

“There are definite benefits of preemption,” said Ben Wilcox, Integrity Florida’s research director. “It just needs to be done more rationally and not enthusiastically.”

Ideological impulses have largely replaced rational thinking. The party in power uses preemption to advance its favored policies. In Florida, that means the Republican-controlled Legislature has routinely abandoned the core idea that the best government is closest to the people.

If Miami Beach wants to ban Styrofoam from its beaches and Jacksonville doesn’t, can’t they both be accommodated?

Not if Tallahassee can do anything about it. Democrats aren’t much better when it comes to usurping local control. They’ve filed their share of the 20 preemption bills already on the 2020 lawmaking docket.

Gov. Ron DeSantis broke the ideological mold last year when he vetoed a bill that would have preempted local governments from banning plastic straws. He said if people oppose such bans, they should elect officials who share their views.

It was a refreshing break, but legislators aren’t likely to stop trying to play nanny or give up creating an all-powerful state. House Speaker José Oliva is a big fan of preemption.

So, apparently, is Rep. Paul Renner, a Palm Coast Republican who is slated to succeed Oliva as House speaker in 2022.

In a 2017 radio interview, when accused cities of “going rogue” when they pass certain laws. You know, laws he doesn’t like.

“It’s Bernie Sanders in charge of your local city government or county government in some cases,” Renner said. “And doing things that really are sharp departures from the way this country has become so prosperous, so strong and so free, and so states are stepping in to say, look, we’re not going to let you destroy all the good work that we’re doing and all the economic growth we’re creating in the state for people by trying to ban or shut down particular industries that you don’t like.”

How paternal. We’d argue that this country’s strength is the freedom citizens have to rule themselves. We’d also argue that Orlando’s Buddy Dyer is not exactly Bernie Sanders.

Like other mayors and officials, he wants his government to reflect the will of its constituents.

As DeSantis correctly said, if enough people disagree with those policies, they can elect somebody else. That’s how a representative democracy works.

It’s a great system the Founding Fathers came up with. The shame is so many today’s lawmakers are so eager to preempt it.