Gop Ready To Push Takings Bill

Some Senate Democrats say they’ll resist a new attempt by House Republicans to pass legislation that would require state and local governments to pay property owners for land values lost to regulation.

The proposal “is still a takings bill, and we believe the people said very clearly in November that they did not support takings legislation,” said Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island and chair of the Senate Government Operations Committee.

But House Majority Leader Dale Foreman, R-Wenatchee, said the House will push hard for passage in the legislative session that begins next week, even in the face of a likely veto by Gov. Mike Lowry.

Foreman’s measure, HB2223, attempts to ease some of the concerns that led to November’s defeat of Referendum 48.

The bill would require compensation for regulations that diminish property values, but would provide that state and local governments could offer alternatives to payments, including easing of land-use restrictions and exchanging the land for surplus property owned by the government, among other things.