So much for local control

Regarding “New sick leave law prompts proposal (Jan. 27)”: So much for conservatives touting local control. Apparently, that’s local control only for issues conservatives support, not for others they disagree with.

It’s no surprise that elected officials like Sen. Michael Baumgartner attempt to prohibit cities like Spokane from requiring companies to provide paid sick leave, or from raising the minimum wage.

Indeed, state and federal preemption over local lawmaking, in the name of protecting business “rights,” has been the norm over the past 50 years in the United States.

States routinely prohibit cities, towns and counties from banning fracking, corporate factory farms, coal trains, toxic waste dumping and water withdrawals within those communities. In doing so, states are not only constricting local lawmaking, but making laws of their own; forcing unwanted corporate projects into those communities over the objections of community majorities.

Perhaps it is time to directly challenge the authority of the state to exercise that power of preemption, when the power is exercised to stop communities from expanding the rights of people. Otherwise, our future will continue to depend on the grinding of the state machine in Olympia, rather than with our own elected officials and people.

Thomas Linzey

Spokane