Liberty
Matters News Service
March 9, 2006
Forever is a Long Time
The problem with conservation easements, says Montana rancher, Llew Jones, is "perpetuity." "A lot of people are beginning to worry about 'forever.' It takes a lot of arrogance to sit here and say we have a plan that will be good forever," Jones explained. The Montana legislature, in which Jones serves, has become concerned that conservation easements will stymie development and subsequently undermine local tax bases. In 2005, legislators ordered the Legislative Audit Committee to investigate what impact "easements have on the market value of easement property and that of adjacent properties," and have a report of its findings and recommendations ready for the 2007 session. Mr. Jones is not unsympathetic to those wishing to preserve the beauty of rural areas, but easements should not be forever he contends. "Who knows what will happen in 500 or 1,000 years," he asked. Montana realtors are discovering the downside of conservation easements as well. It takes a long time to sell property that is burdened by a conservation easement because once a potential buyer learns of it, he often loses interest, according to Big Timber Realtor Mark Norem. Malta Realtor Jim Knudson reports easements are not very attractive to secondary buyers because they don't enjoy the tax benefits. He is also leery that easements won't benefit ranchers down the road. "Take a rancher who's just holding on by a thread and people are pushing an easement for $400,000. Fifteen years from now, he's probably going to be right back in the same position."
Selling Easement Properties a Tough
Deal
Critics of Easements Take Issue
with Permanence
Water Down the Drain - ESA the Cause
Rep. Cathy McMorris (R-WA) wants to help shed some light on how much the Endangered Species Act costs electricity customers with HR 4857, the Endangered Species Compliance and Transparency Act of 2006. "Whether or not you agree with how the Endangered Species Act is being implemented is not the point of this legislation," said McMorris. "This bill simply gives customers the right to know how much of the federal government's ESA costs are being passed on to the electricity consumer." When electricity users learn how much they are paying in increased power bills to preserve salmon, they may wonder if the cost is worth it. "In 2004, one mandated spill (release of water over the dam) cost the federal government $77 million in lost hydropower generation in the Pacific Northwest," according to McMorris's March 2 press release. Another costly spill occurred last summer, according to the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), in which between 25 and 300 adult salmon were assisted on their way to the Pacific Ocean costing rate payers between $250,000 to $3 million per fish.
News Release: McMorris Introduces
Legislation to Require ESA Cost Transparency
It Takes a Village
The affluent village of North Hills on Long Island's "gold coast," is planning a hostile takeover of Deepdale Golf Club, long considered one of the finest private golf courses in the country. The village has initiated, what Mayor Marvin Natiss calls an "information gathering stage," preliminary to seizing the 175-acre property by eminent domain. The threat has prompted a federal lawsuit challenging the village's right to do so under eminent domain and a state lawsuit that alleges abuse of zoning laws to cut secret deals with private developers. "This proposed condemnation may be the most extreme abuse of eminent domain in the country," said John Wilson, one of the plaintiffs. In earlier interviews, Mayor Natiss said the land grab would "increase property values" with the addition of Deepdale as a municipal golf course. The federal lawsuit charges "there is no public purpose" for the threatened condemnation and "North Hills is not a blighted town. To the contrary, North Hills has been ranked as the single wealthiest community in the northeastern United States," the suit continues. Pure greed is the guiding force behind the move, apparently, since there are already 20 golf courses within five miles and more than 50 courses within 15 miles, 11 of which are open to the public.
Lawsuits in Eminent Domain Fight
over Suburban Golf Club
Taxation Without Representation
Property owners across the nation are being hit with huge increases in their property taxes and many are demanding an end to what they see as "taxation without representation." Fed-up taxpayers in at least twenty states have filed lawsuits, adopted citizen initiatives, and legislative proposals all aimed at curbing government's insatiable appetite for other peoples' money. "The intensity of outrage has not been this high since Prop 13's heyday," said Pete Sepp of the National Taxpayers Union. Others say the property tax is the fairest of all taxes and seem puzzled at the outrage. "You think [the property tax is] where the revolt should not come, but it does," said Helen Ladd, a property tax expert at Duke University in Durham, NC. Tell that to Maryanne Ingemanson, whose tax bill has ballooned to $80,000 for her 5,000 square-foot Lake Tahoe home. "Not even the IRS is so bold as to tax people on unrealized gain," said Georgia State representative Edward Lindsey, who has sponsored legislation to cap property assessments at 3 percent- per year. In New Hampshire, Tom Thomson, leader of the "Axe the View Tax," coalition says of view taxes; "It's another process of dipping into taxpayers' pockets without any legislative process, and that is taxation without representation."