NO NO NO on Evil 98

Prop 98 is evil. That's right, evil. Not "unwise" or "misguided." Evil.

It is put forward by extreme property rights zealots. The killer piece is a provision that would prohibit any law or regulation that would "transfer economic benefit to one or more private persons at the expense of the private owner."

This goes way beyond eminent domain or rent control, the ostensible purposes of the measure. Since the courts have ruled that virtually all land-use regulations are likely to impose costs on a property owner and transfer economic benefits to someone else, this prohibition would essentially make it impossible for any government to have any regulation on how anyone uses land in any way.

For example: Cities couldn't restrict the locations or hours of liquor stores in an area, because it would transfer an economic benefit from the property owner (lower profits) to the neighbors (higher property values).

Prop 98 would gut environmental protections, threaten our water supply, make it harder to build new schools or maintain existing ones, eliminate any protections for renters (or neighbors), ... the list could go on and on.

If you need any convincing, check out the extremely long list of opponents: civic groups, seniors, consumer groups, police/fire, farmers, teachers, environmentalists, politicians of every stripe, business groups, even lots of property owner groups. Oh, and just about every newspaper in the state.

No on 98 is the most important thing about this election. Vote No, tell all your friends, and help out by making phone calls, writing letters, donating, or "friending" the campaign on Facebook or MySpace.