No on Initiative 933, the "fairness" ruse

Initiative 933 is an expensive hoax on property owners and taxpayers who would live next to and pay for the turmoil created in the name of safeguarding private-property rights.

The so-called Property Fairness Act is as native to Washington as palm trees. This out-of-state import appears on the November ballot courtesy of a paid-signature campaign mostly fueled by contributions from Illinois. I-933 comes from the same photocopy machine as Proposition 207 in Arizona, Proposition 2 in Idaho or Proposition 90 in California. I-933 is part of a national movement to trash land-use laws by substituting ambiguous, lawyer-enriching language, creating the opportunity to bankrupt local treasuries if officials do not capitulate and agree to cooperate.

Details vary by state, but the guiding premise is to roll back land-use and environmental laws to give current owners a chance to use their land the way things used to be. All the predictability and certainty that goes with zoning and land-use regulations are tossed aside for their neighbors, whether they live in a subdivision or work a family farm.

Agricultural interests are presumed to be among the most burdened with land-use grievances, but Washington farmers have rallied to oppose I-933 because they suspect their livelihoods are especially vulnerable to the initiative.

The proposition is a marvel of mushy, waiting-to-be-litigated verbiage on everything from the urgency of public-health laws to the invocation of harm to personal property in this land-use measure.

I-933 invites fantastic estimates of its potential cost to taxpayers because so little is known about the expensive consequences of what the initiative requires — everything from new land-use studies, government overhead, writing checks in lieu of waiving land-use rules, or the practical and social costs of selectively waiving established regulations.

Oh, the presumed ability of government to blithely waive a rule is assumed by the initiative drafters.

Perhaps the essence of the I-933 fairness ruse is found in the act's preamble and its passionate statements about government taking property under eminent domain. The topic is not an issue. I-933 does not touch eminent domain in this state.

Vote No on I-933, a very bad bargain for Washington state property owners and taxpayers.