Local democracy under attack

Putting big campaign contributions ahead of good policy, conservative legislators work overtime to pass “preemption” laws to block local rules designed to protect workers, the environment, and public safety. Progressive state legislators will be on Twitter tonight from 6-7pm to answer your questions about protecting local democracy in Florida this upcoming legislative session.

The GOP majority in the Florida Legislature has little use for local democracy. When city and county governments enact popular new policies that conflict with corporate special interest-driven agendas in the State Capitol, conservative legislators scramble to undo them. Putting big campaign contributions ahead of good policy, legislative leadership works overtime to pass “preemption” laws to block local rules designed to protect workers, the environment, and public safety.

Progressive state legislators will be on Twitter tonight from 6-7pm to answer your questions about protecting local democracy in Florida this upcoming legislative session. I hope you’ll join us using the hashtags #AskFLLeg or #FLLocalDemocracy! If you’re not on Twitter, you can submit a question here and we’ll select a few questions to tweet tonight.

The GOP majority in the legislature have already stopped local communities’ efforts to raise the minimum wage, promote gun safety, address the high cost of rent, enact earned sick time requirements for workers, ban plastic bags, and more. They could go even further in the 2020 legislative session, enacting blanket preemptions on entire categories of rules local governments have enacted to protect their citizens and improve their quality of life. Make no mistake: the escalating number of preemption laws being introduced by the Florida Legislature represents a dangerous concentration of power in Tallahassee at the expense of local democracy and local control.

Join the conversation tonight from 6-7pm on Twitter, or submit a question for us to share with participating state legislators.