Tea partiers have been making gains on the national stage recently, pushing candidates like Rand Paul and Sharron Angle through the 2010 primaries and into the nomination spotlight.
But for the Tampa Tea Party in Florida, the nationwide effort to keep government out of people’s lives starts much closer to home — on their front lawns.
A Hillsborough county ordinance would ban the use of nitrogen-based lawn fertilizers during the summer, prompted by environmental groups who said that runoff from the lawns pollutes local waterways during the summer rainy season.
A county commission was scheduled to discuss the measure yesterday, and the Tampa Tea Party was ready to mobilize. According to Janet Zink of the St. Petersburg Times, the Tea Party sent out an e-mail to plan for a “meet-up” to oppose the ban, called “TIME TO STOP THE TAKEOVER OF OUR COUNTY COMMISSION BY THE SIERRA CLUB AND OTHER ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS PUSHING THEIR ‘SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT’ AGENDA .”
The Tea Party apparently objected to the government’s interference on their private property, and the county commission exemption of “golf courses, large Agriculture and large farms,” from the ban. Instead, the Tea Party said, they are “going after the ‘little guy’ who fertilizes his own yard or those in business today who perform that work.”
Though according to the Tampa Tea Party’s website, only five people attended the meet-up, they’re in luck! The commission voted to delay a decision on the ban, leaving local lawns safe. For now.
