First, what is preemption? It is a legal doctrine that allows a higher level of govt to override a lower level of govt. Oftentimes, preemption looks like the federal govt banning state govt from doing something. Or a state govt stopping a city council from doing something.

Preemption is neither inherently good nor bad -- it is a tool. But for too long, Republican lawmakers in Arizona have abused preemption laws to attack our communities.

In AZ and across the country, red legislatures are waging war against blue cities. Far-right legislatures have used preemption to ban cities from acting on gun reform, raising the minimum wage, and more.

As a result, many Democrats now reflexively oppose preemption laws. That’s understandable. But … there’s more to the story, because there are ***good*** preemptions.

For example, the 1st Amendment is a preemption that bans states from establishing an official religion. The 13th Amendment is a massively important preemption that bans states from practicing slavery.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 is a preemption that bans states from denying access to public facilities on the basis of race. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 is a preemption banning states from enacting explicitly racist voting laws.

In AZ, we should pass a statewide preemption law to ban cities from discriminating against the LGBTQ community. We should also enact a statewide preemption law to ban cities from practicing income-source discrimination.

In short: Yes, we should oppose bad preemptions. But we should support good preemptions.

And this year, while we fight bad preemption proposals, we also have the rare opportunity to support good preemptions in Arizona.

SB1161 is a preemption that stops cities from banning the construction of AFFORDABLE homes near public transportation.

SB1163 is a preemption that bans cities from prohibiting housing options like duplexes & manufactured homes — which are inherently more affordable.

HB2536 is a preemption that bans cities from prohibiting ADUs (affordable housing). It also preempts cities from needlessly slowing down permit processing, clearing the way for more—and quicker—housing construction.

My constituents elected me to do everything I can to make rents & mortgages more affordable. I’m fighting like hell to make that happen.

Zoning reform alone isn’t a silver bullet. It needs to be coupled with legislation ending Wall St predatory practices (see my bill HB2683), stronger renter protections, a strong & sustaible source of revenue for the Housing Trust Fund, 1st time homebuyer programs & more.

In sum: Housing affordability is a statewide issue that won’t be solved by a mishmash of city-by-city fixes. A problem this massive & urgent requires statewide action -- and that means preemption.

@os_delossantos @threadreaderapp unroll

@os_delossantos Lol, deregulating zoning does not work. Only taxes on investment properties and public housing does.

@os_delossantos The fact remains that zoning has no effect on housing inventory increases or price alleviation Lets just call it a billionaire land grab. It’s time to check the campaign finance reports.

@os_delossantos Zoning is irrelevant if the price of land is exorbitant and materials and labor are also high. Mandating triplex, duplex, and ADUs will not make anything "affordable" so long as development costs continue to soar and demand guarantees profits for developers.

@os_delossantos What about the Dallas RE company that purchased 6,800 homes in the Valley? How about we preempt that?