Senate Bill 54, The bill to prevent nanny-state advocates at the municipal level from attacking local businesses by banning plastic straws and bags was reconsidered, and found new advocates as it moved forward in the House after Senate passage, and is now headed for the Governor’s Desk:
During reconsideration, Post said there were some misconceptions about the bill stifling local control. That control was allotted to businesses that would be allowed to serve their customers as they wish, Post said.
And…
On its second try, the bill was endorsed by the House on a vote of 46-24.
After being defeated 30-33, the measure picked up several votes.
Those absent before swung hard for passage, and the naysayers lost nine who swapped their vote against political correctness, and voted in favor of main street.
(BTW, the plastic straw issue is also a pretty big one for disability advocates as the paper straws are useless for everyone, but particularly for those who have some disabilities. Good story on it here.)
So protection of the environment is now an issue of political correctness? We are effing doomed.
I still don’t undersrand how a ban on plastic bags harms retailers. You keep.saying it does in your posts about this bill, but I haven’t found the post where you explain why
State Senator Wiik has made various and specious claims in Facebook posts to rationalize his nanny state legislation.
Here is a sample –
– That the population of the state is too small to endure a patchwork of local regulations which might develop if his nanny state ‘ban on bans’ is not put in place.
And yet, look at the patchwork of sales tax assignments which are allowed such that municipalities can choose to collect sales tax (or not). Or the patchwork of off-sale beer, wine and liquor licenses (and the fact that some municipalities choose to establish their own liquor stores).
– That a ban on plastic bags will rob retailers of the opportunity to capitalize on the innovation which is yet-to-come in this field.
Wait, you mean, like consumers bringing their own re-usable bags? An innovation which requires no government intervention?
Out here plastic straws and bags are used by birds to make nests. The birds like them. I don’t think they are posing a threat to the marine life, but in coastal communities it is a big problem, dead animals and plastic trash washes up on the beaches.
In larger cities plastic shopping bags get airborne and end up hanging in the trees and there aren’t enough birds to collect them all. They make a big mess. If littering ordinances were enforced in these areas it would help, but these are the same cities which don’t enforce prohibitions of loitering, public intoxication or urinating in the streets. When the real problem is the presence of homeless addicts, banning plastic bags and straws is the politically correct solution.
There are Republicans who really believe in small government, others who think the State’s power should be used in tyranny to make the entire State in their own image, and, after what happened to HB1057, some just worship the mighty buck.
We have cities so the people can have the most direct control over their lives (and still be governed). This means we have to let some cities to make mistakes* and respect those communities enough to correct or accept living under the mistake.
Yes, a municipality who does this would be a nanny city. So, in what world do we then think it rationale to use the nanny State to protect them from themselves? You just can make this up.
There was a day when being a conservative meant “I won’t inflict myself on you because I don’t want you to inflict yourself on me.”
Now politics is liberal authoritarians fighting with conservative authoritarians and basic concepts of liberty are just empty words.
*Does not anyone want to laugh they are banning thin plastic bags while most of what goes in those bags is plastic? The plastic bag ban movement is beyond irrational. But, if you want people (or cities) to learn responsibility you don’t protect them from consequences.
The disabled groups should be pushing reusable silicone straws. They are safe, reusable, and just as effective.
As if disabled groups don’t have other things to push, they now have to fight to be able to bring their own utensils to drink beverages in public. The altar of faux, self righteous environmentalism does not discriminate on who gets sacrificed. Wow.
Why would they have to fight? No one is stopping them. They should have them so they dont have to rely on anyone else to provide straws for them. Silicone is even safer because a plastic straw still has a sharp edge that can cut a person’s mouth. Silicone won’t do that.
If what you say is true, it is well known and a good thing.
But, that doesn’t mean, in the absence of having a silicone straw, they should have access to plastic straws when in public.
They always have and always will have access to plastic straws. It sounds like you expect someone else to provide them for these individuals.
Today, Wall Street Journal has a great article on how bad plastic bag and straw bans are on the environment and how liberal tyrants use it to feed their need to be morally superior to others,
Unfortunately, the tyrants of the right in the Legislature dismiss principles of local control to submit to the Swamp of Special Interests.
What’s new?
Still the same ‘we know better than you’ nanny-statism emanating from Pierre.
Local control, schmocal control, hah!.
Liberals/Leftists invented the Nanny state and the need to control every aspect of life. A close look at so many of our laws around the country will show where all the Nanny laws come from and most are in blue areas. There are SOME Republicans who are against it but, they are becoming more scarce these days. Troy has great points above.
Anonymous, 10:46 a.m.
I think that you just called State Senator Wiik (and many others ‘serving’ us in Pierre) a liberal, exercising need to control every aspect of life (small ‘L’).
I agree.
Why does my party continue to elevate and elect these liberals like Wiik to office?
It is simply too easy to place an ‘R’ behind your name on a ballot in this state and suddenly get elected to the state legislature.
There are many examples of this in the current and immediate past legislatures.
See what I have come to realize is that both the Democrat & Republican party both care about is power and control. They BOTH care about $$$$$ but, dont’ take my word for it, look who funds them, pays their speaking fees, etc. People get so wrapped up in Ds and Rs they stop looking at what they say vs what they do. The Dem party is by far the worst of the two and they have lurched so far Left a good chunk of Ds have a broken neck from the jarring sudden move. The list of Democratic Presidential candidates says it all:
– Bloomberg | A billionaire buying his way into office and has spent over 400 Million already, this is more than Trump spent in total in 2016 and he is not even close to done. The only capitalist on stage and is booed
– Sanders | An all out Communist and front runner, completely insane he has ANY votes let alone leading, these people are whack jobs. Guy is a millionaire who has 3 houses yet is railing against rich people. Guy has NEVER had a job
– Klobachar | An evil spiteful human being to the point her staff hates her
– Mayor Pete | A guy with no experience, father was a communist, talks and says NOTHING (sounds like Obama)
– Warren | A fake native american who has used her supposed Racial identify to get a head, failed a DNA test to boot. Said she would have a 9 year old Trans child vet the Secretary of Education, WTF. She also used to be an Attorney for the Oil & Gas industry helping them avoid taxes. Fauxahontas
– Biden | Perverted sick old senile man who LOVES to sniff girls hair and touch them (youtube it – its gross). Claims to fame is fighting off a gang member named Popcorn and LOVES it when kids play with his leg hair
Everyone of them have the following in common and are running on this platform
– Free Healthcare
– Free Healthcare for Illegals
– Open borders
– Climate Change, ugghh
– Identify Politics
– Higher Taxes
– Trump Bad
Best part is on last night’s debates they booed Bloomberg when he called Sanders a Communist and said Capitalism is not going anywhere. WTF is going on, these people are insane. Move to Cuba if you want that stuff. They are imploding trying to “Out Left” the other guy