The Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City (Jason Hancock/Missouri Independent).
If Kansas City had its way, the local minimum wage would run $17 per hour, grocery stores would only use paper bags and you’d need to pass a background check to buy a gun in town.
But politicians and businesses that see these policy ideas as threats to their authority or their bottom lines, shut off all those policies by using their power to block them.
So instead of playing whack-a-mole at hundreds of city council meetings, lobbyists set up camp in the state Capitol to make it impossible for any town to pass certain laws that reflect local sentiments.
For more than a decade, red states like Missouri have stripped cities of their ability to craft local policies on pesticides, tobacco taxes, workplace protections and affordable housing. The rise of “preemption laws” comes from corporations and politicians who want to keep these decisions under their control.
“Cities are on the frontlines of multiple … crises these days,” said Katie Belanger, the lead consultant at the Local Solutions Support Center, which pushes for local control in cities and counties across the country. “Abuse of preemption today is cutting off local elected officials at the knees.”