The Property Fairness Initiative

On The PES today, we had FOURTH year vet student Brandy Fay, chairperson of the WSU Collegiate Farm Bureau, on to speak about the Property Fairness Initiative (I-933). This initiative, field by the Washington State Farm Bureau, would require state and local government to compensate landowners when regulations "damage the use or value" of private property.

Brandy did a great job answering our questions and explaining the initiative! A recording will be available on The PES website, but Scotty tells me about half of Brandy's interview didn't get recorded. That's too bad.

I am a 100% in favor of this initiative. It's about time in my opinion. Many of you have heard of outrages like King County's Critical Areas Ordinances (CAO) that requires some property owners to leave 65% of their property in native vegetation (i.e. bushes and weeds), and to have "impervious surfaces" on no more than 10%. Impervious surfaces, in King County, include dirt and gravel roads!

Nothing is more important than our property rights. The legislators in Olympia have dropped the ball, so the citizens have to take action.

Another reason to love this initiative is that is driving the radical environmentalists, labor unions, and the liberals absolutely nuts. They know it has a good chance of passing if it gets on the ballot and the property rights Measure 37 in Oregon recently withstood a court challenge. The misnamed "Community Protection Coalition" states on their website that I-993 will:

Create loopholes for irresponsible development (and more traffic!) that will harm our quality of life now and for future generations

Boy, does that sound familiar.

Permanent Defense, a left wing organization that opposes citizen initiatives, even has a website where people can report "right wing petition signature gathering activity." How Orwellian. Nothing like having your neighbors report "non-correct" thinking. What are they going to do anyway? Have the KGB or Stasi come by and spirit off the petition signature gatherers?

The Farm Bureau needs to gather 300,000 signatures before July 7 to get on the ballot this fall. They got a late start, so they have a lot of ground to make up.

How can you help? You can sign the petition or volunteer to collect petition signatures here in Pullman or Whitman County by contacting Brandy at wsucfb@yahoo.com. I understand there is a copy of the petition at Cougar Country Drive-In. You can also donate money to the campaign at the Property Fairness Initiative website