Washington County Enterprise-Leader
Local Control Vs. Pre-emptive State Lawmaking
CONSERVATIVES OFTEN SPLIT; SAYING NEW LAWS ARE ‘GOOD FOR BUSINESS’
This entire column is about a complex legislative issue. But it is really about something as simple as a local city banning the use of plastic shopping bags. It won’t be easy. But wouldn’t it be worth it in the long run?
Local ordinances, at the city and county level, face a spate of “preemptive” legislation down in Little Rock during this legislative session, legislation aimed at thwarting local control.
Remember the term “preemptive.”
You will hear that phrase a lot in the remaining weeks of the 90th Arkansas General Assembly.
“Preemptive” means even if a city approves an ordinance/law at the local level, the state can negate or outlaw that local law/ ordinance — now and forever.
There is a national trend, at least a trend in the Deep South, (now known as the Deep Red Republican South), to pass a passel of preemptive laws thwarting local government control.
In doing so, that generates a statewide mantra of being “business friendly.”
In Texas, it has been called the “Texas model.”
That model, my fellow Arkansans, is developing rapidly in our state.
Yes, these preemptive law-like bills are multiplying on the docket of the 90th Arkansas General Assembly.
This is the same assembly filled with legislators who loudly campaigned shouting they want their God-given right to “local control” on issues.
This group also has been constantly championing the theme of “less government interference” from all corners.
Yet this group of legislators is set to pass more and more new laws to combat local control issues they dislike. These ordinances and laws are mostly in cities in which they (the members filing the bills) do not live, work or play. So why, you ask? Why don’t they just leave these cities and counties alone?
It’s really easy to explain, the preemptive-bill-filers say. It is “all about business.” They cite business in Arkansas will be harmed.
But after that blanket assertion, these bill-filers are often fuzzy with details and lacking statistics to prove their assertion.
It could be an issue as simple as a bill banning those pesky plastic bags we all loathe.
Let’s say a mythical local ordinance, banning plastic bag use by the year 2020, is enacted in, say, Fayetteville, Conway or even Eureka Springs. That may seem like an environmentally friendly thing to do.
But such a local ordinance is deemed unacceptable to a particular group of people outside the city which enacted the impending ban.
The “doing away with the constant use of plastic bags,” which are seldom recycled with any great frequency, would hurt Arkansas’ businesses, say these preemptive billfilers.
Never will these folks tell you, they and the preemptive bill are backed by manufacturers of these landfill staples. Or that similar bans are taking place all over the United States.
It’s bad business for Arkansas, these preemptive bill-filers say.
These bill-filers say such local laws/ordinances must be overturned and prohibited by state law.
And when the local ordinances deal with living, breathing human beings or how human beings live, work or are treated by others — well, you get it.
The discussion on these bills turns the dialogue up several notches and raw, often untamed emotions take over the issue at hand. Everyone, it seems, loses focus on the issue.
It seems like a local issue, until someone in the state legislature files a preemptive bill.
A local prohibition on plastic bags, (used here as an example), will be said to be bad for business in the state of Arkansas no matter how good it will be for the environment.
So much for local control.
Many preemptive bills of this ilk have surfaced this year.
Something has got to give.
Pretty soon the preemptors will indeed be preempting themselves on more and more issues. It could happen. Why, it is happening now. MAYLON RICE, AN AWARDWINNING COLUMNIST, HAS WRITTEN BOTH NEWS AND COLUMNS FOR SEVERAL NWA PUBLICATIONS AND HAS BEEN WRITING FOR THE ENTERPRISELEADER FOR SEVERAL YEARS.