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DES MOINES, Iowa -- A bill advancing through the house would take away a county's ability to set its own minimum wage.

The republican bill would undo a year of study and debate by the Polk County Board of Supervisors after they decided to raise county minimum wage, along with other counties.

The bill would also reset the state minimum wage at $7.25 an hour.

Opponents of the bill say it is an overreach by the state government.

“In local government, our constituency, we have a close relationship with them, we live in their community. They expect us to represent them in issues like this and to strip that power away from us; I think that is unconstitutional” said Polk County Supervisor Tom Hockensmith.

The bill would also restrict local government in other ways.

Local governments would not be able to set regulations of what type of containers stores can use. The issue has come up in cities across the nation in the form of “plastic bag bans”.

It would also prevent local governments from adding to the protections under the Iowa Civil Rights Act.

While no groups protected under the civil rights act would lose their rights, adding groups under that umbrella would have to be done at the state level.

Republicans backing the bill say it would encourage more groups to be protected at the state level rather than city by city, and provide a level playing field across the state.

“We're trying to bring this to say, this is a state wide issue. We're trying to protect everyone at the level that is uniform across the state of Iowa, for business to do business across the state of Iowa, and for employment to be seamless across the state of Iowa” said Representative John Landon.

Hockensmith says this type of bill was not expected coming from republicans who champion small government.

“The Republican Party has said over and over that they’re for smaller government and local control, and then to take that position which is completely opposite of the position they had is a bit hypocritical” said Hockensmith.

The bill's author, Representative Jake Highfill (R), did not make himself available to comment on his bill.

The bill cleared its committee meeting on Thursday afternoon and now advances to the full house for consideration.