Hold on to your wallet

Dear Editor:

I notice the ugly disease of zoning has now taken root in Morgan County after being successfully defeated elsewhere in the panhandle. Folks, don’t fall for it. Vote no every time the ugly head of zoning slithers out from under its rock.

What is zoning? What does it mean to me? Zoning is a branch of government. A board or commission has the power to tell you what you can and cannot do with your property: what size house you can build, can you run a home based business, sell home grown tomatoes, maybe breed horses or dogs, etc.
The zoners will tell you “they are protecting our rural way of life.” Don’t believe it. Zoning is simply growing local government, which means growing taxes.

I am reminded of the military unit that got just big enough to need a company clerk. They were assigned a corporal. Three years later, that corporal is a lieutenant colonel with a staff of 50. That’s how the size of government (and taxes) grows.

Taxpayers, hold on to your wallet if zoning is voted in. I wonder whose in-law is going to get the fat cat salary of the new zoning commission. How much will the offices, inspectors, assistants, cars for all of them to ride around in, etc. cost? Then, there are the legal costs of appeals, lawyers, etc.

They will tell you that this new branch of government will start small, with little effect on existing owners. Yeah, right. The iceberg that sunk the Titanic started out as a single snowflake. We don’t need it. We don’t want it. It’s too expensive. Folks, even if you have never voted before, register now and vote no to this expensive expansion of government.

Tom Collins
Berkeley Springs