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Two bills aimed at curbing local ordinances from impacting businesses cleared two key Senate committees at the state Capitol this morning. The first requires local governments to pay for an assessment of what a new ordinance might cost a business. The second would allow a business to sue local governments if a new ordinance caused more than a fifteen percent reduction in a businesses income. A common example used in meetings has been the reduction of operating hours for a bar. Sen. Travis Hutson sponsored both bills and tells us they are designed to work together and make sure local governments understand the costs of what they do.

“280, for example is the front end, right? It is the well informed do you want to make these decision? You can, we’re not telling you not to, but you can make this decision and you will know what the impact is going to be on the business. At the same time, you are soliciting that business, you can find out if it hits that fifteen percent threshold. So there is a front end and a back end, but both of those would deal with it all at the local level.

And Hutson says the idea is to keep business from running to lawmakers asking them to preempt more local authority.