Prop 2 would be a costly mistake

Prop 2 is wrong for Idaho.

It claims it will protect our property rights and prevent uncompensated regulatory taking by government entities. It won't.

What it would do is allow unscrupulous developers to run roughshod over local planning laws and common sense. Don't want that junkyard or strip mine next door? Too bad. Under Prop 2, taxpayers can either pay to prevent schemes that shouldn't even see the light of day or let unsuitable projects and bad ideas run amok.

Speculators win, we lose — a lot.

It claims it will force government entities to compensate anyone who is prevented from using their property as they see fit. It won't.

Instead, government entities will be blackmailed into either paying to prevent projects that go against common sense and/or local land use codes, or letting the project go forward.

Forget new classrooms, forget fire and public safety needs. Say hello to lawsuits. Not exactly how I want to spend my hard-earned dollars.

Since Oregon's Measure 37 was passed by voters two years ago, Portland State University's Institute of Portland Metropolitan Studies has documented more than 3,300 claims for compensation totaling more than $5 billion.

According to the Sightline Institute, a not-for-profit research and communication center based in Seattle, the current wave of land-use initiatives — including that in Idaho — endangers farmland, holds communities hostage to profit-making ventures like mines in residential areas or elsewhere, threatens national parks and more.

The measure has nothing to do with the government seizing your home to build a mega-store and everything to do with a few mercenary souls trying to get around the rules by, and for, the majority.

Beyond the huge fiscal threat, Prop 2 wrongly claims to fix a wrong that the Idaho Legislature already made right. HB 555 expanded private property protection to ensure your home can't be taken for the sole purpose of economic development. Adequate protection is already in place. Why replace a wheel that works with one that won't?

Join the dozens of business organizations, community organizations, candidates — including all local and state candidates — and individuals in soundly rejecting this costly, ill-thought initiative.

We don't want it. We don't need it. We can't afford it.

? Caroline Lobsinger is the managing editor of the Daily Bee.