This Monday the Washington Farm Bureau announced a land rights initiative for the fall, 2006 ballot. The measure will likely include a requirement for financial compensation to individual landowners for governmental “takings” of – or environmental restrictions on – the use of private property. Oregon recently passed a similar measure, which was struck down by the court as unconstitutional.
Land rights on '06 ballot: Days after election, Farm Bureau launches initiative drive for next vote
Farm Bureau initiative seeks compensation for landowners
Such a law could moot out a good potion of our laws that regulate development and protect the environment. Land use restrictions under the Critical Areas Ordinance (CAO) and laws protecting agricultural lands could be rendered unenforceable. Considered by environmentalists as a ‘make-or-break’ issue for the state, this initiative also gets to the heart of what is at stake in many of our current civic challenges – from electoral reform to tax justice. That is the double-edged question: to what extent does the public wield power over its own destiny through government -- and, conversely, to what extent does it relinquish that power to private interests that are not accountable?
The takings initiative holds out hope for small and mid-sized land owners, particularly in rural and agricultural areas, who are facing increasing challenges to their economic power and autonomy. Hobbling the power of representative government to regulate land use is unlikely to resolve these challenges. It is, however, likely to transfer even more political and economic power to large developers who are accountable to the community only as far as citizens grant their government the power to make them accountable. Between 1997 and 2000, Washington lost 10% of its farms – much of it due to land development. A takings initiative would speed up development – take it further out of the realm of community control.
It can be difficult to understand how so many people anticipate a massive power transfer from representative government to private interests to hold out promise for them. Even so, it was not a surprise to me to hear that WFB representatives received an enthusiastic standing ovation from farmers at a recent agricultural meeting where the initiative was discussed last week. We are undergoing momentous economic, demographic, and land use changes in Washington state. Our public finance system is dysfunctional. People and businesses are feeling the squeeze and turn to professional organizations such as WFB (and, in the case of I-330, Washington Medical Association), to lead the way. These organizations appear to be lead their members into actions that benefit huge corporate interests.
Moving beyond perpetual tax revolt and property rights outrage
As much as this move by WFB appears to pose a serious public threat, it may also prove to be a golden opportunity. It comes at a “teachable moment” – against the backdrop of our seemingly endless tax revolt mentality here in Washington and after the recent breakthrough victory on I-912. It’s past time to find ways to address tax and land use issues that have been impeding progress for decades. How can we engage in this issue so that the net result is to enhance rather than diminish understanding among those who share much common ground? How can we emerge from this better equipped to collaborate on resolving longstanding challenges in our state?
An educational approach -- and new electoral organizing techniques such as Permanent Defense employed in its recent effort against I-912, are needed to help raise the public dialogue to a higher level and break through the reactionary cycle that has us stuck in self-defeating tax and land-use battles. Recent advances in coalition building among various sectors such as labor, environmental, and religious groups also hold promise.
Education and real communication is needed, not just on the pernicious consequences that this law may hold in store for us, but also on opportunities that can move us past old conflicts into progress. New technologies in sustainable development -- for example in the realm of energy -- even under-utilized as they now are -- are already benefitting agricultural land owners. American Farmland Trust's U.S. farm policy reform initiative recognizes that current developments -- for example, in global trade and increased public access to information on agricultural subsidies -- have created an "unprecedented opportunity for U.S. farm policy reform to benefit farmers, ranchers, consumers and taxpayers." Advances in economic research – for example a new study on the “multiplier effect” of money spent locally in the food industry that kicked off last night in Seattle, are also providing new tools. Regional efforts to prepare for the impacts of climate change also provide opportunities for change that can benefit all players.
Economic, land use, environmental, social, and demographic changes cannot be stopped. If we stay fixated on old battles that emphasize the rights of the individual in isolation from the interdependent needs of the community as a whole, we will lose new opportunities and continue to narrow, rather than expand our options.
John Kenneth Galbraith warned about the dangers of "public squalor amidst private affluence" when the private sector is unwilling to invest in the public good -- and the public sector fails to step in. This month's issue of Scientific American, in an article entitled, "Sick of Poverty," invokes this phrase, warning of the increasing wealth gap in the United States that is causing massive public health costs and individual suffering. We have, here in Washington, one of our nation's largest gaps between the rich and middle classes. And we have a long history of battles over public investment in public goods such as education, transportation, and environmental protections. Our unfair tax system, one of the most regressive in the nation, helps to fuel this dysfunction. My hope for Washington is an increase in public awareness that can move us in a better direction. Perhaps we are in a position to make such progress now.