Patrick Henry didn’t say, “Give me cinnamon rolls or give me death,” but one suspects he would have been appalled at the predicament of a local entrepreneur.
Lindsay Skolnik started making cinnamon rolls to satisfy a pregnancy craving. The stay-at-home mom kept tweaking her recipe until she had created what she believed was an exceptional product. In April, she started a microbakery.
She used Instagram videos to promote her wares. In July, one of her posts went viral. Interest in her signature “center bite cinnamon rolls” exploded. She couldn’t make enough to keep up with her customers. What a wonderful example of why it’s such a blessing to live in a country that embraces free enterprise. Anyone can start and grow a business if they attract people who freely buy what they have to offer.
But Ms. Skolnik soon ran into a bigger hurdle than her customers’ insatiable desire for her sweet treats. Despite being a licensed “cottage baker,” Clark County Code Enforcement ordered her to shut down operations by mid-August.
“I thought I was in the clear,” Ms. Skolnik said. “I got my business license. I have an LLC. I have the approval from the Southern Nevada Health District. Even before I started all this, I reached out to my HOA and told them what I was doing, and I got approval from my landlord.”
That’s a lot of government-imposed hoops to jump through, but county bureaucrats still weren’t satisfied. They didn’t approve of customers coming to her porch to pick up items. The horror!
“It was the only way that I was able to stay home with my babies and bring in an extra income,” she said.
The county claimed she needed a special permit for on-site clients. Now, it might be one thing if she had thousands of customers coming by. But twice a week, she had three to five customers coming during the day. Her customers weren’t eating cinnamon rolls on her porch, either.
Clark County’s main failing is looking so closely at the letter of the law that it failed to realize the absurdity of its enforcement actions. The local government should help budding entrepreneurs, not crush those who successfully navigate most, but not all, of its byzantine regulatory labyrinth.
A note to all the young people who favor socialism over capitalism. What happened to Ms. Skolnik isn’t capitalism. It’s big government strangling the market through regulations. Socialism always fails because it requires ever bigger government staffed by ever more intrusive bureaucrats.
The good news is that Ms. Skolnik’s culinary delights will soon be sold at a Café Lola in Summerlin. Rather than look for another picayune reason to harass a budding entrepreneur, county bureaucrats should stop by to enjoy her baked treats.
