Small Government Conservatism=State Republicans Repealing Local Protections & Minimum Wage Increases

[jenk]

Republicans claim to be for small government conservatism. So they're for letting municipalities set their own laws, right? Writing on North Carolina's recent anti-LGBT bill:

[The legislative blitz] wasn’t only a bathroom bill, though. That was the pretext — state legislation to override Charlotte’s city law protecting LGBT civil rights. But the effect — explicitly written into this new law — reaches far beyond just this immediate anti-LGBT pretext. The law claims for the state the right to overrule and override any local or municipal regulation — specifically mentioning local minimum-wage laws and child-labor laws.

So this isn’t just about prohibiting Charlotte from protecting the civil rights of LGBT residents. It’s also about preventing Charlotte from raising the minimum wage. Or preventing Charlotte — or any other municipality — from, say, requiring better water-safety standards than whatever state lawmakers might decide. It’s a centralized, top-down, Raleigh-knows-best power-grab by the capital. Because, again, small government conservatism.

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