I’ve got a fever, and the only prescription is … less BS.
Yeah, I know, I’m basically dead, right? RIP me.
Alas, Nonsense Burnout didn’t make it into the DSM-5, so instead of taking a sick day, I get to engage in some therapy here, with you.
Send me your bill.
Campaign Action
An Ounce Of Preemption Is Worth A Pound Of…: One of the less-noticed phenomena of the GOP’s dominance in state legislatures over the past decade is the glut of preemption laws Republican lawmakers have been routinely using to undermine the local authority of (often more liberal) city and municipal governments.
Fun fact! North Carolina’s infamous Bathroom Bill was one of these preemption laws—the Republican-controlled legislature passed it specifically in response to a Charlotte city ordinance that allowed folks to use the bathroom corresponding with the gender with which they identify.
- Theoretically, preemption measures are used establish a sort of hierarchy to prevent conflicts between state laws and local ordinances and ensure that statewide policies are generally applied uniformly.
- They’ve also been used to set a “floor” below which municipalities are not permitted to fall with regard to things like civil rights protections and employment and wage standards.
- Over the past eight years (read: since Republicans came into ginormous power in state legislatures after the 2010 elections), however, many state-level preemption efforts have been used to bar localities from addressing local problems and issues—and to expressly punish jurisdictions that suddenly find themselves in violation of these new laws.
- Take, for example, the mid-decade situation Pennsylvania cities found themselves in.
- For decades, around 100 Keystone State cities/towns/boroughs/etc. had effectively ignored the existing state statute preventing them from regulating guns beyond what was allowed statewide—they just went ahead and implemented the gun safety measures the locals wanted.
- In order to sue over these local ordinances, you had to (a) be a resident of the locality in question and (b) demonstrate you’d been “injured” by the law in question.
- Few were willing or able to do so.
- But the passage of Act 192 in 2014 changed all that.
- This measure allowed well-funded outside groups like the NRA to sue municipalities over these gun restrictions—and, by allowing a victorious plaintiff (but not the city, if it won) to recoup all legal costs from the defeated local government, the financial burdens of even winning a lawsuit, much less losing, were too much for most places to risk.
- Nearly 100 Pennsylvania municipalities scrambled to repeal their gun ordinances—basically “at gunpoint,” according to one borough council president.
- Larger cities that could afford the inevitable litigation, however, stood firm.
- In fact, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Lancaster sued the state’s top (GOP) elected officials over the new law right after it passed.
- The NRA turned right around and sued those cities.
- Ultimately, Act 192 was thrown out by state courts, and the Pennsylvania Supreme Court upheld that decision when it finally landed on their bench in 2016—but on procedural grounds, not the merits of the issue.
- Over in Arizona passed a law in 2016 appropriately described as “the mother of all local preemption bills,” a measure that withholds all shared revenue from a town, city, or county that passes an ordinance that conflicts with state law.
- Basically, localities literally can’t afford to defy the (GOP-controlled) state government.
Fast forward to, well, now—the State Innovation Exchange (SiX) and the Local Solution Support Center have delivered a lightly belated Christmas in July gift (to me, anyway) by issuing an excellent report on state preemption laws, which you should totally read with all the free time I know you have.
… Okay that was a bad joke.
- As penance, allow me to share some good stats (… albeit about bad things):
- 25 states now preempt localities from setting minimum wages higher than the statewide rate.
- 23 states prevent localities from establishing paid sick leave
- 15 states have banned bans on plastic bags.
- 43 states restrict local authority to regulate guns or ammo.
But the preemption news isn’t all bad.
- In fact, 2019 has seen an unprecedented level of organization and pushback against GOP abuse of preemption measures.
- In Arkansas and Colorado, existing preemption laws were rolled back.
- Most notably, Democrats made Colorado the first state to repeal minimum wage preemption. Localities with higher living costs can establish higher base wages.
- Colorado also granted local governments control over oil and gas drilling sites.
Sure, this isn’t a lot in the grand scheme of all the preemption laws Republicans have used to strait-jacket local governments, but not only is it a start—it likely also indicates the beginning of a bigger, broader push against this state-level gutting of local authority.
Smaller government, anyone?
Down With The Sickness: Now that Tennessee Republican Rep. Glen Casada has finally resigned his speakership, I was getting a little nostalgic for those bygone days (… a whole three weeks ago) of kicking him around.
Bad Medicine: Remember that ugly corporate giveaway Wisconsin Republicans gave to a flat-screen manufacturer to woo a factory to the state back in 2017?
- The GOP-controlled legislature was so desperate to coax Foxconn to locate its facility in the Badger State that it passed legislation that:
- Has state taxpayers forking over as much as $4.5 billion in subsidies and incentives to the company as an enticement to build their plant and hire workers;
- Exempts Foxconn projects from state environmental rules and protections; and
- Essentially creates a separate state court system just for Foxconn.
- Foxconn-related lawsuits skip the normal appeals process and appeals are expedited to the state Supreme Court, where conservatives just happen to hold a majority.
- Any ruling by lower trial courts would be automatically stayed until a higher court (likely that state Supreme Court) takes action on the case.
- The GOP’s Foxconn giveaway started to smell pretty bad right out of the gate.
- Within just a few months of the deal’s passage, Foxconn was already beginning to back off of its pledge to build a huge technology park to house 13,000 jobs with an average annual wage of $53,875.
- Now Foxconn says that, instead of a 20 million-square-foot factory making large LCD screens, it’s building a facility of less than 1 million square feet that will make smaller screens.
- Instead of the 5,200 people Foxconn said it would hire by next year, it’s saying it will employ only 1,500 people at that point.
- The state commissioned a report to assess the costs and benefits of this way smaller facility, and, well … the findings were not great.
- With the smaller facility, the already “unusually high” cost per job for Wisconsin taxpayers will rise from $172,000 to $290,000.
- Foxconn execs have already met with Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to express “interest” in revising the company’s contract with the state.
- You know, to avoid, like, breaching it.
- But Evers bashed the Foxconn boondoggle on the campaign trail last year, so it seem unlikely he’ll just roll over and let Wisconsinites continue to get screwed by Republicans’ crap deal.
What does the Foxconn say
- Oh, and while we’re talking about Wisconsin Republicans, Assembly Speaker Robin Vos is an asshole.
- You see, Democratic Rep. Jimmy Anderson was paralyzed from the waist down when a drunk driver hit his car in 2010 (his parents and brother were killed in the wreck).
- This makes getting around more challenging for him than for most of his colleagues in the legislature.
- So he asked GOP leadership if he could call in to some committee meetings to participate and cast votes (scrambling from one meeting to another during busy parts of the legislative session can be pretty challenging even if you’re not using a wheelchair tbh).
- Also, it’s not healthy for Anderson to remain in his wheelchair for long stretches of time (session alone can go on for hours a day).
- When his request was rejected, Anderson shared his situation with the media.
- Vos immediately lashed out at Anderson, accusing him of—I shit you not— “political grandstanding.”
… honestly dude you could have used any other word
- After attacking Anderson by questioning his “seriousness,” Vos oh-so-generously offered to provide a videographer to allow Anderson to view committee meetings later, but that pretty completely undermines the whole point of participating in a committee meeting.
- This week, Vos again accused Anderson of using his meeting access request to make “Republicans look bad,” but he did suggest he may be willing to make some concessions to his colleague—though of course he failed to specify what those might be.
Welp, that’s plenty for this week. Time for a mental health break. You should engage in some of that “self-care” stuff yourself. Get an early start on your weekend and whatnot. Just print this out and show it to your boss, I’m sure she’ll at least suggest you see a professional.