The Missouri Legislature is considering two Republican measures that, together, would effectively yank away local authority on an array of agricultural issues, from regulation of big hog-farm odor to inspections of puppy mills. Regardless of the nuisance such operations pose, localities would have little or no say on their presence.
No longer would the smell, pollution and unsightliness of inappropriately sited or poorly run operations be within local governments’ authority to control. No amount of complaining by residents would affect the ability of such operations to open up nearby.
At what point will GOP legislators grasp the hypocrisy of condemning “big government” when it’s Washington telling states what to do, while they embrace big government’s powers in Jefferson City to whittle away local control?
As the Post-Dispatch’s Jack Suntrup reported, the two pending bills are in response to local ordinances put in place because of what critics say is lax state regulation.
One bill, Senate Bill 391, would prevent county governments from imposing rules on operations like hog farms that are “inconsistent with or more stringent” than state regulations. It would tie the hands of 20 Missouri counties that have enacted local ordinances against odors and downstream pollution from such operations.
Opponents say the state regulations are inadequate; for example, they place no odor restrictions on any but the largest classification of hog farms. Those farms are often owned by companies that have no ties to the local region, giving residents no leverage with them if authorities can’t enforce local ordinances.
The other bill, House Bill 951, would remove authority of local officials to inspect dog breeding facilities and businesses that produce eggs, dairy or livestock, putting those inspections entirely under the purview of state and federal agriculture departments.
Missouri has a sorry history of puppy-mill controversies. This bill would effectively prevent local officials from having any power over that issue, even though, critics say, the state still isn’t adequately addressing the problem. More broadly, it would effectively nullify local zoning powers when a poultry or livestock facility wants to move in.
Together, the two bills would render local elected officials utter bystanders to what happens to the land, air and water in their own jurisdictions. “One (bill) is saying you can’t do a health ordinance,” noted Brian Smith of the Missouri Rural Crisis Center, “and the other is saying you can’t enforce a health ordinance.”
Republicans tout a mantra of “local control” when it comes to education, health care, taxes and most other issues. One Missouri Republican has even pushed legislation to nullify federal gun laws within the state’s borders.
Yet when it comes to favored Republican special interests like agriculture, locals are supposed to shut up and let Jefferson City dictate what they have to look at, smell and live with. That’s called hypocrisy — and it stinks.
