Transfer program doesn’t use taxes

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Regarding the Wednesday letter, “Don’t give farmers a dime of tax money”: The letter writer should read more carefully before he jumps up on his laissez faire soapbox.

A Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) program does not use taxpayer money. Instead, as Sunday’s guest commentary clearly states, TDR sets up a buyer/seller market for those rights, preserving farmland by enabling developers to increase the use of their land elsewhere.

If the writer sees no value in saving an irreplaceable resource, that’s up to him, but he’s the one who has it exactly wrong when he says farmland “can’t be developed anyway.” It can and is, all over the county. What other economic force does he imagine is driving up the price of land? My family farms 400 acres in the Stillaguamish valley, and I can assure you, Island Crossing is an anomaly only in its notoriety.

And if he wants to “eat California produce,” let him move to California. No doubt he’ll find marked-down prices on those homes with a nice, unobstructed view of a car lot.

Max A. Albert

Arlington