Property Fights
Rick Henderson accurately portrayed the fear and loathing spread by the environmental movement in our nation's capital ("Bill Killers," Aug./Sept.). Outside the Beltway, state capitals across the United States are also becoming property rights battlegrounds, with the greens pulling out all the stops to defeat regulatory reform measures.
Over the past two years, almost 100 bills to protect property rights have been introduced in 37 states. Ten states have passed such bills. The route these bills must travel to become law, however, is long and treacherous.
One of the unlucky bills that failed is from Mississippi. It would have compensated property owners if their land was devalued by 40 percent or more by state regulations. The greens finally killed it through a technical maneuver, but not before they dragged it and the whole takings debate through the mud -- charging it would turn back the clock on race relations, bankrupt state treasuries, and allow big business to pollute the state at will (much the same arguments heard in D). Environmentalists seized the opportunity to chirp up a deceitful rumor campaign to attack the bill. They were even successful in converting a prominent conservative Christian organization to their side by convincing them that the bill would allow the owners of topless bars to claim a taking if they were forced to close. The bill would not have had this effect.
The fact that legislators across America are introducing property rights legislation proves the issue is of great concern. Indeed, it is the civil rights issue of the 1990s and beyond. While advances have been made, the regulatory apparatus still deprives people of their right to own and use property responsibly.
David W. Almasi
Director of Media Relations
Defenders of Property Rights
Washington, D