By Christina Sandefur, Executive Vice President at the Goldwater Institute

Few people pay much attention to local regulation, but it’s where some of the most substantial infringements on liberty occur. For state think tanks, it’s also one of the richest areas for driving positive change leading to stronger, more prosperous communities.

Local governments exist to deliver services that would be inefficient for state government to provide, such as local budgets, police departments, and water and sewer services. Increasingly, however, cities are micromanaging every aspect of their citizens’ lives—and in the process, intruding on individual liberty to an alarming degree. 

One might expect conservatives to be concerned about this trend. After all, this is the type of government overreach that conservative legislators fight tooth and nail when it’s proposed in Washington, DC, or the statehouse. But when this overreach comes from cities, conservatives are surprisingly deferential to “local control,” because they perceive the decisionmaker as being closer to the people. This misconception is all too common—and it can have disastrous results for freedom.

Local Government: Where policy plays out in people’s day-to-day lives

Cities and local communities play a vital role in people’s lives. After all, they are the places where most of our day-to-day lives take place. And they are the places where the consequences of laws and regulations are most immediately and powerfully felt.

While the upside to local control is that citizens have greater power vis-à-vis political leaders, the downside is that local government can more easily fall prey to special interests, prejudice, or panics. Jon Russell, a town councilman in central Virginia and a member of SPN’s Local Government Working Group, explains why the framers of our Constitution set up a system to counteract these dangerous tendencies of localism: They spread authority among a wider class of citizens. Unlike the relationship between the states and federal government—where the former retain inherent powers that the latter cannot usurp—local governments are creations of the state and should be governed as extensions of the state. In other words, as Russell notes, “The state legislature is where philosophical policy is debated and developed. Local government is the application of those philosophies.”

Government’s ultimate goal at any level is to protect our rights. State legislators have the power—and a duty—to ensure that local governments focus on their most vital jobs without undermining freedom.

Solutions state think tanks can bring to their communities  

As members of their communities, state think tanks understand the unique challenges that cities face. They have an incredible opportunity to educate state and local officials on the proper role of cities—and on the duty of states to preempt cities when they exceed their powers and abuse their citizens’ rights. Through credible ideas, research, and stories, state think tanks can help state legislators and local officials discover solutions that meet these unique needs while strengthening citizens’ freedom and making their communities places people want to live and work.

Several state-level reforms are already helping local governments serve citizens, business owners, and property owners better. These reforms include the Permit Freedom Act, Home-Based Business Fairness Act, and Property Ownership Fairness Act. These solutions empower cities to maintain quiet, clean, and safe neighborhoods, while protecting the rights of individuals to peacefully exercise their property rights and pursue an honest living. Arizona, for example, passed a law that bars local governments from imposing blanket bans on home-sharing. Thanks to this law, people like Glenn Odegard of Jerome, Arizona can continue to offer their homes as vacation rentals.

One of the best ways cities can exercise their powers to encourage safe, affordable, and healthy neighborhoods is by removing the obstacles that arise from zoning. To this end, SPN’s Local Government Working Group has designed a Zoning Reform Toolkit with a menu of more than 50 options and strategies to guide local officials in implementing meaningful policies. One reform option, for example, urges cities to reduce parking requirements—something Buffalo, New York did in 2017. The city eliminated its parking regulations in favor of market-based parking, which allowed investors to repurpose old buildings more cheaply and has contributed to a healthier downtown. For state think tanks, this resource is an accessible, practical tool for engaging local officials in conversations about how they can help neighborhoods thrive.

On local government reform, the Network can do more by working together

Reform ideas are being developed and tested by state think tanks and cities across the country. To help more states take advantage of these solutions and lessons learned, State Policy Network convened a Local Government Working Group. This group developed a framework for effective local government by creating a statement of principles for local government leadership, which outlines the proper role of local governments and the state’s role in ensuring that local governments do not exceed those boundaries. Through this resource and others, SPN’s Local Government Working Group is helping ideas spread across the Network, and they regularly advise cities to respect individual rights, have an open and transparent government, and adopt resilient budgets.

Local control by local government is still government control. I highly encourage state policy groups to engage with state and local officials to help them understand the opportunities and limits of their respective roles. Ultimately, the most “local” decision is the decision made by the individual, and that’s the localism that liberty-loving legislators should be intent on protecting.

Resources for state think tanks

Guiding Principles for Local Government Leadership
A product of the State Policy Network Local Government Working Group

How to Build Affordable, Thriving Neighborhoods: A State and Local Zoning Reform Toolkit
A product of the State Policy Network Local Government Working Group

Three Simple Rules to Permit Freedom (HB 2062)
Goldwater Institute blog post

Home-based businesses are good for entrepreneurs and local economies
Goldwater Institute blog post

How to Protect Property Owners Against Unjust Seizures
Goldwater Institute blog post

Individual Liberty Over Localism
American Legislative Exchange Council article responding to the National Review article “Let Liberal Cities Do What They Want.”

Christina Sandefur is the Executive Vice President at the Goldwater Institute. Contact her at csandefur@goldwaterinstitute.org.