THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607250159
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 06 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 53 lines
A June 11 Virginian-Pilot article reported that federal Judge John MacKenzie had refused to uphold R.G. Moore in his tax suit where he claimed that the government's categorizing his land as wetlands had, in fact, diminished its value. It seems that our various governmental divisions speak with forked tongue when the City of Virginia Beach recently argued, and won, the opposite verdict concerning Margaret Johnson's 2.8-acre tract.
She was denied compensation for taking her land for a school site in part because the city argued that her land was greatly diminished in value because it was not developable due to the Chesapeake Bay Preservation Act. Essentially, the same case scenario but vastly different conclusions.
There are numerous situations where our government (state, local and federal), under the guise of zoning, wetlands, Chesapeake Bay Preservation, endangered species, etc., has confiscated private citizens' property without just compensation. Our various governments through its bureaucrats have ignored the constitutional protections of the citizenry not to have their property confiscated without just compensation.
This is primarily because our elected representatives have not fought to correct the overreaching interpretations of the various statutes by the bureaucracy. They seem to pass laws then forget about them and do not seek to redress some of the wrongs done by overreaching, agenda supporting bureaucrats.
In my opinion, we have reached the ``Alice in Wonderland'' phase of government with regard to our taxation and environmental regulatory enforcements. For example, we now have some 1,000 species on the endangered list including the Red-legged Frog and the much loved Kangaroo Rat, not to mention the California Gnatcatcher, which recently caused over 400,000 acres to be placed in the restricted usage category. Amazingly, our federal government, through its Department of Interior and its Cabinet Secretary, Bruce Babbitt, feel this is a very ``flexible'' program since 5 percent of these 400,000 acres will be released from control for ``constructive use.'' Isn't that generous of him!
My concern is not personal but for the future generations. Because if we move along the path we have taken over the past 50 years in the areas of governmental confiscation of our earnings and our property, my grandsons will be paying 90 to 95 percent of their monetary earnings to support governmental directed programs and they will be in danger daily of losing the right to walk on their own grass because it is labeled ``upland, dry wetlands,'' which is the habitat of the Purple Nosed African Tsetse Fly by zealous bureaucrats under the gobbledygook guise of enforcing unreadable statutes.
Mrs. Johnson and Mr. Moore are just two pawns in our ``Alice In Wonderland'' philosophy of government as it now exists.
C.G. Harris
June 19 by CNB