Hi there,

Over the years, I've heard of many instances where local governments made things burdensome for cottage food entrepreneurs.

But this has got to be the worst one yet!

As you may recall, New Jersey finally created a cottage food law last year.

But that new law is basically unusable in Somerville, NJ.

Maria Winter, a 4th-grade school teacher, lives in Somerville and wanted to sell cookies as a side hobby.

But imagine her horror when she learned that she needed to pay $1,000 to apply for a zoning variance, AND she needed to place $4,000 in a borough escrow account!

Now believe me, I've heard a lot of cottage food stories (and plenty of mind-numbing government fees), but... $1,000 for a single application? Putting money in an escrow account? Those are firsts for me.

Fortunately the Institute for Justice is on it. They sent a letter to Somerville demanding that they get this fixed ASAP.

And according to Martha Rabello (she was on Episode 50 of the podcast), Somerville is only one of a dozen towns that are slow to allow cottage food businesses in New Jersey.

In the case of Somerville and other NJ towns, it's likely just a case of outdated laws that need to get improved to accommodate home bakers (though that may take awhile).

But in other cases, the government burdens are quite intentional. I'd say that the worst stories I hear tend to come from California and Illinois. Some cities/counties are very against the idea of selling homemade food.

And that's why it's important for cottage food laws to contain a line that prevents local governments from getting in the way!

Until next week,
David


P.S. In case you didn't click the link above, this is the article you definitely want to read.