I know that state Rep. Sam Crump (R-LD6) is currently the darling of the conservatives in the AZ blogosphere. They consider him to be a better Republican than most of his namby-pamby colleagues that are solely focused on destroying public education in Arizona, but one of them is going to have to write and tell me where in the national GOP platform their party supports the idea of allowing families to burn to a gruesome and painful death in their new homes to enhance developer profits.
Even the GOP isn't so crassly corrupt as to go that far...in writing, anyway.
So what's Crump's problem?
From the Arizona Republic -
House bill would prohibit home-sprinkler mandates
Calling it an issue of consumer choice, Rep. Sam Crump is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit municipalities from passing ordinances to require sprinklers in new, detached single-family homes.
"There's always people every year at every level of government that have good ideas of what they want people to do," Crump said. "We want to keep it in the consumer's realm of choices."
Crump, R-Anthem, also said he wants to avoid a patchwork of different rules in different communities.
Crump's HB2267 can be found here.
Perhaps Crump's goal is to minimize the impact of cuts to school funding by removing children from the school-age population before they grow into the school-age population.
OK, that's a little over the top.
More likely, it's just a thank you to his many campaign contributors from the real estate and development sectors. When the International Code Council adopted its "sprinklers in new homes" standard in September, the home builders screamed in opposition, citing a litany of faux problems (frozen pipes, leaky pipes, increased cost to home buyers, etc.). Those excuses have been refuted here, courtesy the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA).
Crump and the Republican supporters of the bill claim that it just provides consumers with more choices - they'll still have the option of having sprinklers installed.
From the Arizona Guardian (cached, as the site is now subscription only) -
Other GOP lawmakers said it wasn't the job of government to protect everyone by heaping expensive regulations on home buyers.
"I don't think it's the government's job to protect people from cradle to grave," said Rep. Frank Antenori, R-Tucson.
With rationalizations like that one expect to see the following on the AZGOP's hit list, and soon -
Requirements for car safety belts
Restrictions on lead paint in childrens' toys
Hazardous waste disposal regulations
The damage that the Reps are looking to wreak upon Arizona in the name of their anti-people and pro-corporate profits ideology over the next couple of years is going to take at least a generation to repair. And it will take that little time only if we start cleaning up the mess in 2010 by throwing them out during the next election.
No comments:
Post a Comment