As more municipalities get involved in mandating what have historically fallen within the purview of the state or federal government, the notion of passing state preemptions becomes more important. On the matter of salary history bans, the state of Michigan recently took precisely that action, sending Senate bill 353 to Governor Rick Snyder for his signature. The legislation expands existing law to prohibit local communities from restricting employers from asking a prospective employee about their previous salary history. In a similar vein but on a different subject, last week Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed HB 2484, a preemption bill providing that all food/beverage taxes in the state must be uniform. The law effectively bars local Arizona communities from adopting local taxes on sugary beverages (soda taxes). State legislators in the Texas state house are planning to move state preemptions in the 2019, but that may be too late for some as the city of Austin, having just enacted its own local paid leave law, is now considering a restrictive scheduling mandate as well. Some on the Dallas City Council are looking to follow the Austin lead and adopt their own paid sick leave law as well, so let’s hope the Texas legislature can move fast in 2019.