Property Rights Under Assault

July 1, 2004

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Get this. This is King County, Washington. Get this. (Fox) "Residents of king County, Washington, will only be able to build on 10% of their land, according to a new law being considered by the county government which, if enacted, will be the most restrictive land-use law in the nation. Known as the 65-10 Rule, it calls for landowners to set aside 65% of their property and keep it in its natural vegetative state. According to the rule, nothing can be built on this land, and if a tree is cut down, for example, it must be replanted. Building anything is out of the question. Most of the residents will be directly affected by the regulations are fuming. They see the new regulations as a land grab and a violation of their property rights. 'My take is it's stealing -- out and out stealing,' said county resident Marshall Brenden. 'They're taking 65 percent of your land that you fought for years to pay for, paid mortgages on and now you can't use it.' But, supporters and environmentalist (wackos) say personal property rights do not trump the rights of a larger community to save the ecosystem." Uh, folks, let me say something here about this. You can talk about free speech and you can talk about free this and free that, and they're all important and I don't want to be misunderstood, but the right to private property is as fundamental to a free people and free nation and capitalism as is any of the others. It may rank at the top, private property. The right to own it. Once you don't have that, once land becomes collective -- (gasping) -- there's that word. This is an encroachment that's been going on for years out west. I mean, it's manifested itself in many forms. If they find a kangaroo rat on your property and some poor maintenance worker ran over the thing in his tractor, he can get sued, the tractor manufacturer gets sued, and you can't build anymore where the kangaroo rat was found. You've all heard about the snail darter. There are just countless examples and there are more and more of them coming all the time. This is just absurd. Only build on 10% of your land. Do you realize that some of you people would have to build something smaller than a dumpster on your lot if this ever becomes -- this is the county out there. This is not even the state or the feds yet. This is just the county. This is a Fox News story. I found it on their website today. "The plan is being pushed by King County Executive Ron Sims, who is currently running for governor of the state of Washington." And here's his answer. "'We're trying to keep the rural area a place that isn't just McMansions and ball courts, but instead has those natural processes,' said Tim Trohimovich of the group 1000 Friends of Washington, which aims to promote healthy communities and cities while protecting farmland and forests." So they're trying to tell you you can't build. You go out and buy a property, a piece of land X size, you can't build what you want on it. Not only that, you can't build very much of it. You can own it, but you can't do anything with it. In fact, you may as well not own it because the county or the state is going to tell you what you can and can't do with it. What's next is they're just going to come in and take it from you and they're going to say since we got a new law that says you can only use 10% of it, we're going to take the other 90% to make sure you don't abuse the law. There's a word for this, and it's not socialism. END TRANSCRIPT