The defeat of Initiative 933, the Property Fairness Act, demonstrates how tenuous a grasp on liberty people have. That, in America, citizens would vote against the government compensating a citizen for land value it seizes, boggles the libertarian mind.
Opponents of I-933 were successful in using scare tactics, citing monstrous tax expenditures to compensate affected landowners. How could voters have missed that the only time tax money would have gone to anyone, would have been to fairly compensate a landowner for the value of their property taken away by government?
Why stop there? How about this: In order to promote Washington state’s apparent lust for a green policy, why don’t we seize 30 percent of everyone’s current property? Yep, just seal off about a third of your house, apartment, condo and backyard. Just think of the massive reduction in energy use. Oh, and by the way, your rent or mortgage stays the same, while your property value declines.
And then maybe, just maybe, the urban voters who rejected I-933 might understand what it means to have a cornerstone of liberty ripped away from their American dream.
Steve Pomper
Brier
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