LEGALIZED EXTORTIONS

[The following was posted 9/20/13 on the "Free Enterprise Forum" Website, Charlottesville, Va.]

Proffers are legalized extortion.  The fiction that they are "voluntary" demonstrates the extent to which we lie to ourselves to justify the unjustifiable.  The General Assembly should quickly move to revoke the proffer system statewide.

Proffers were smugly dreamed up as a "punishment" on "greedy developers," but developers don't pay those proffers!  They are passed through by developers to the individual purchasers of the properties subject to the proffers.  They also amount to an (intentional) "entry fee" to discourage newcomers from moving into a subject area, and that is downright un-American!

Most of us living in established homes did not have to pay extra for the roads, schools or sewers we use nor for any other "public" amenity built with revenues from prior taxpayers.  That so many "public" amenities have now been conditioned upon the payment of "user fees" is ludicrous.  Such amenities are supposed to be "public" for a reason, that government SHOULD furnish some things to everyone via taxation.  Taxation is the price we pay for a civilized society.

So, let's get civilized and get rid of proffers!