Common Sensible

We often lament the abuse of eminent domain power that occurs when the property of one private owner is forcibly transferred to another private owner.

But this doesn’t mean all grabbing of property for “public use” is honorable or sensible. Government officials too often mindlessly deploy their power, simply because they possess that power and can get away with abusing it.

And if the easiest way to get what they want also happens to show brutal contempt for the rights of their constituents? Hey, them’s the breaks, pal.

The editors of a Phoenix area newspaper, the East Valley Tribune, also oppose such arbitrary assault on the property and rights of others. In the town of Chandler, Arizona, Lloyds Complete Auto Supply must close its doors. Not because they can’t make money any more, but because Chandler officials want a new town hall. Aztec Wrought Irons in the same neighborhood is also on the government’s hit list.

There is no more urgent reason for the peremptory bulldozing of these businesses than the expiration of a ten-year lease in a private office building where many city officials have their offices. That’s the crisis. That’s the dire emergency.

The Tribune believes that instead of using tax dollars and police powers to “knock down decades of hard work,” Chandler officials should take the trouble to align their plans with those of property owners.

Yes. They should.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.

The blogger Alaskan Librarian has a list of things he’d like done by the next president. I share at least one of his wishes, “to see policy formulated in the open.”

Specifically, he wants candidates to sign the Reason Foundation’s “Oath of Presidential Transparency.” The pledge has two parts. The first endorses “effective management, accountability, transparency, and disclosure” of federal spending. The second is a commitment to enforce the Federal Funding and Accountability Act, passed by Congress in 2006.

This legislation was introduced by Senator Tom Coburn. Both Barack Obama and John McCain signed on as co-sponsors. It requires all recipients of federal funds to be fully disclosed on the Web. And hey, they even set up a website.

Obama has already signed the Oath of Presidential Transparency. I have to wonder who is asleep at the McCain camp, given that their candidate has yet to add his John Hancock. Same goes for Ralph Nader, Libertarian Bob Barr and the Green and Constitution Party nominees.

But since we’re all in agreement here, let’s demand more.

Like what? Like real-time updates about budget items, allowing citizens time to protest particular pork projects and other prodigalities. Like forbidding the last-minute stuffing of earmarks into reconciliations bills.

Maybe we need a new compact with our government, one where, as Leslie Graves of the Lucy Burns Institute suggests, there would be “No taxation without information.”

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.