The Law That Keeps on Taking - #3
Note: This is part of a series.
Washington's Initiative 933. Montana's Initiative 154. Idaho's "Property Rights Protection." All three 2006 ballot initiatives are modeled on Oregon's Measure 37--a prototype pay-or-waive scheme aimed to eliminate most land-use laws.
Last week, I wrote about claims made in Oregon under Measure 37. The claims are often pricey, sometimes absurdly so, and governments simply waive land-use restrictions for claimants because there's no (taxpayer) money to pay the claims. But there's an additional hidden cost to pay-or-waive laws: the expense of administering them. This week, I take a look at the administrative costs--the unavoidable costs--of a law like I-933.
How much will it cost to administer Initiative 933? This question should be of some concern to Washington voters because the entire cost will fall to taxpayers. I-933 stipulates that property owners wanting exemptions from land-use laws will pay no costs whatsoever--no filing fees, no attorney fees, nothing. So, what's the damage?
The answer, in brief, is "a lot." A low-ball estimate puts the figure in the neighborhood of $1 billion per year; mid-range estimates could be closer to $2 billion annually. (And remember: scary as they may sound, these estimates assume that agencies waive laws for every claimant and never pay a landowner to comply to with land-use laws. These are simply the costs of administering the law.)
Where do these figures come from?
There are two possible way to figure out how much I-933 will cost Washington taxpayers. First, we can see what Measure 37 costs in Oregon. Second, we can consider Referendum 48, a 1994 ballot measure--very similar in some respects to I-933--that Washington voters rejected. R-48 was vetted extensively by nonpartisan lawyers and economists who developed a sophisticated range of cost estimates. Those estimates can be applied, with some modification, to I-933.
Let's take a look.
