Fighting for Control

The Houston Chronicle reports that political battle is developing between the state and local governments in Georgia. As in Texas, state lawmakers are trying to limit the controls and regulations that city and county governments place on land use. And as in Texas, local municipalities are fighting back.

State legislators are targeting regulations that control “the color of a house, whether vinyl siding can be used, the style of roofs and porches and how garage doors and other openings are placed.” A recent report found that these regulations can add as much as $30,000 to the cost of a new home.

Basic economics tells us that these costs will be passed on to consumers in the form of higher housing prices. As we have pointed out many times, land-use regulations are a primary cause of soaring housing prices and unaffordable housing. But local officials in Georgia dismiss that claim. Columbia County Manager Scott Johnson said. “

I don’t know that affordable housing and local designs are hand-in-hand but they [state officials] believe that they are. (The bills are) coming back this year. We are prepared… to fight it.

Note that Johnson doesn’t know if there is a connection between affordable housing and local land-use regulations, nor does he seem to care. He is going to fight any attempt to limit his power over the property of others.

Like his power-lusting cohorts in Texas, Johnson views any restrictions imposed by the state as a limit on his fiefdom. He wants unlimited power.

The proper purpose of government is the protection of individual rights, including property rights. Just as the federal government should intervene when states violate individual rights, so the state governments should intervene when local governments violate individual rights.