Politics from the Palouse to Puget Sound

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Speaking of I933

Aaron Flansburg of Whitman County has used his wheat field (Story About Aaron Flansburg) to rally against I933. What is interesting is that if he was in The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. County, he could be in trouble for doing that. As their CAO (Critical Area's Ordinance) limits what people in the rural areas can do with two-thirds of their land. He could have gotten in trouble for disturbing HIS LAND.

People are complaining about the number of initiatives that are appearing all over the West. It might make one think that due to the additional laws and rules that are being placed on land owners year after year, that the land owners are finally fighting back. It could be that the land owners are sick of paying a large amount of money each year on land they have fewer and fewer rights to use. In The Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. County some people are paying plenty for land they can do nothing with.

The argument is what it will cost taxpayers. It has been costing the taxpayers for years. One by one each tax payer who owns land has paid for the land and his restricted used of it. Now those who advocated more and more strict policies will have to think about how it will affect people.

It appears that some people are trying to stretch this law to mean that 100% of rules, laws, and ordinances will possibly have to be repealed.

I-933 is a costly scheme that would force communities to choose between paying millions of dollars to special interests to obey basic city zoning ordinances and environmental and smart growth laws, or to waive these laws.
(Source)

The use of their wording, such as forcing people, schemes, etc to bring out emotional reactions to their argument is typical and doesn't work on *this guy*.

It is interesting that the citizens of the state of Washington who own and pay property taxes on their land are now referred to as "special interests". I think it would be just as easy to say "people" or "citizens".

And the hyperbole of adding basic city ordinances to the extreme environmental and "smart" growth laws.

Tom has already pointed it out, and I hope we continue to pound away at this, we are losing property rights. We need to put an end to it. The only special interests in this debate are the non-land owners/tax payers who want to restrict what the land owners do through legislation.

1 comment:

April E. Coggins said...

How would passage of I-933 stop the Flansburgs from farming? I can see how defeating I-933 could possibly give them no choice except to continue to farm (with government approval, of course), but not the other way around. I can just imagine Aaron Flansburg saying, "Please Mr. Government, please force me to farm. I don't deserve all these choices!"
I'm afraid the Democrats are once again using misinformation and outright lies to sell their agenda.