Republican lawmakers typically tout the benefits of local control. But in states across the country, they have taken action to rein in cities that want to enact progressive measures such as gun control laws and minimum wage hikes. Now plastic bags have become an unlikely flashpoint in the conflict between blue cities and their red state legislatures.

In recent years a handful of states – Arizona and Missouri in 2015, Idaho, Michigan and Wisconsin in 2016, Minnesota in 2017 – have enacted “bans on bans,” joining a group that already included Florida, Indiana and Iowa.

…New Hampshire is not among the 32 states with home rule that, through their state constitutions, allows cities and towns to adopt policies on their own initiative.

Instead, this state and seven others permit cities and towns to take these local actions, but only if the Legislature passes an enabling law.

State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, D-Portsmouth, championed that bill (SB 410) in 2016, which the state Senate rejected by a 12-8 margin.

Banning plastic bags: State, local officials often clash | New Hampshire

Ahhh, the GOP: 100% against large government making decisions for local municipalities… …Until it might put them at odds with big business, that is.