Massachusetts ride owners claim tougher rules threaten their business

Ten day advance itinerary? Does anyone know what other states say about this? Given the fact these are portable rides, I would imagine that most states allow for some flexibility.

A lot of shows have a route, usually set by the time they hit the road. Most of their dates are under the auspices of a fair, festival, etc. and are locked in ahead of time. Some of them are what is refere to as still dates, i.e. no sponsers. Sometimes due to circumstances beyound their control a date has to be cancelled. This is not common, but not unheard of. When this happens a show will either jump ahead to the next date, or find a lot to set up on in that area. The latter is usually preferable, so that they can try to recoup lost revenue. In any event they wind up being someplace at a time that conflicts with their original route card. To me the logical solution to this is if this situation occures the show would just notify the appropriate dept. that for reason A, B or C they had to alter their route. The jumps most of these shows make aren't that great, and would be easy enough to compensate for. The days of shows just floating around looking for place to set up are long gone.

But my experience in dealing with government agencies is that what is logical and makes the most sense has no place next to rigid interpretations of laws and regulations. And their sense of time and urgency is 180 degrees away from that of a business person trying to make money, meet a payroll, and yes, pay taxes. I've seen some government employees so fanatical about devotion to the law they make religious fundamentalists look like agnostics.

I can't tell from the story, but is the state saying that if you change your itinerary, we can't guarantee we'll have someone there to inspect your setup, therefore you won't be able to operate?