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Gov. Phil Murphy signed a measure into law Monday that allows enterprising children looking to make a few bucks to operate pop-up businesses without municipal permits or licenses.
Hard to believe, for sure, but dozens of states still make the summer pastime illegal without local government approval. The same goes for mowing lawns and shoveling snow.
Health-code violations and child-labor laws are their concerns, officials in those states claim.
New Jersey joined nearby New York and Connecticut in calling BS on that.
“There’s an endless stream of stories from around the nation about children being harassed by local officials for running lemonade stands without permits,” said state Sen. Michael J. Doherty, one of five legislators who sponsored the bill in Trenton. “Instead of providing space for kids to learn about entrepreneurship, they’re being taught harsh lessons about the heavy hand of government by overzealous bureaucrats."
Doherty had also sponsored a “Right to Shovel” law enacted in 2016 after a pair of teenagers were stopped by police and told they couldn’t go door to door during snowstorms to offer their services.
The new legislation expands that law to any type of child-run business, prohibiting towns, cities and villages in New Jersey from requiring a child to obtain a license or permit to operate a business temporarily.
“Nobody is getting sick because a six-year-old’s lemonade stand didn’t get a health inspection, and professional vendors aren’t being driven out of business by the $5 a child might collect from supportive neighbors,” Doherty said.
“Unfortunately, those are the exact excuses towns have used to put the smack down on entrepreneurial kids from coast to coast," the Republican lawmaker from Warren County said. "It’s absolute nonsense that should never have been tolerated in New Jersey and I’m pleased that Governor Murphy agrees.”
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