State bans stir critics to ask: Does Lansing know best?

[TexasTowelie]

Lansing — Michigan’s Republican-led Legislature is working to ban local governments from doing things none has tried: from taxing soda-pop to prohibiting job interview questions.

The recent rash of pre-emption bills — backed by powerful business and industry groups — will prevent municipalities from mimicking what GOP legislators consider faddish rules from liberal enclaves, such as San Francisco or Seattle, they argue could slow Michigan’s economic rebound.

But critics contend the bills are part of a continued assault on local control out of Lansing, a chisel compared to the hammer of state-appointed emergency managers who took over struggling cities with failing finances in the recent past.

The Legislature last year banned plastic bag fees, thwarting environmentally driven plans in Washtenaw County, and is considering bills to prohibit local zoning restrictions on Airbnb or other short-term rental homes.

Read more: http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2017/10/16/state-bans-lansing-knows-best/106699028/

[delisen]

1. Michigan turned red in 2010

Michigan is another state which turned Republican in the fateful re-apportionment year of 2010-the first election after Democrats passed the ACA health care law.

In 2010 Rick Synder defeated his Democratic opponent for governor. The Michigan House of Representatives went from a significant Democratic majority to a significant Republican majority. The state senate was already a majority Republican and they increased their Republican majority.

Democrats lost both Wisconsin and Michigan in 2010. The passage of the ACA and the rise of the Tea Party were factors.

As 2010 was a re-apportionment year, state legislators in these two states were subject to Republican gerrymandering-making it more likely they would be able to hold on to their wins in subsequent election cycles and be able to pass authoritarian legislation designed to do damage by taking power away from local government and citizens.

Both of these states entered presidential election cycle 2016 with Democrats in a far weaker position then they had been in 2008.