News

Tupelo, Mississippi, urged to allow open marketplace for food trucks

October 30, 2018

Jon Pritchett, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Mississippi Center for Public Policy, is calling on the city council of Tupelo, Mississippi, to abandon its efforts to impose burdensome restrictions on food truck operators as a means to curb the competitive threat they may pose to the city's brick-and-mortar restaurants.

The commentary, which appeared in Tupelo's Daily Journal, pointed to practical reasons for allowing food trucks to operate without undue restrictions, arguing that "a powerful economic trend like food trucks" actually could help Tupelo to build a more diverse and vibrant local economy, and that in a competitive marketplace, consumer preference, not political patronage, should determine winners and losers.

It would be a mistake, he said, to attempt to "thwart a powerful economic trend like food trucks."

Pritchett also warned that undue regulatory actions by the council would be subject to legal challenge and that the constitution prohibits economic protectionism. 

"We should be encouraging entrepreneurs and risk-takers, not creating hurdles out of a misplaced sense of obligation to protect existing businesses," he wrote.