Similar to the rules in Washington and Georgia, the Alaska House’s revised bill does much to avoid the dangers of giving local bureaucrats too much control. Georgia’s constitution, likewise, empowers local governments to define blight, but provides a baseline: “at a minimum, (’blight’ is) property that constitutes endangerment to public health or safety.” In a counter-example, Washington state law predefines “blight” narrowly, limiting local officials’ ability to manipulate blight designations for ulterior motives. Without limiting language - or any other definitional restrictions - local officials could call “blighted” any building they want taxed or demolished. As originally written, the Senate’s bill gives local governments far too much latitude to do the same. If the government has carte blanche to deem properties that are far from unsalvageable as blighted and levy taxes against their owners, then local bureaucrats will possess too much discretion to control the disposition and use of private property.įor example, in 2004, Lakewood, Ohio officials tried to label an entire residential neighborhood blighted to make way for modern condos, even though many of the properties were hardly a danger to public health or safety, the most basic definition of blight. The term “blight” must be precisely defined, and narrowly applied. Officials could use more weapons to combat blight, but blanket permission to designate anything they wish as such is simply too great a power to entrust in the hands of municipal bureaucrats. While truly blighted properties - ones that are vectors for disease, crime, and other public dangers - can be of real concern, current nuisance laws empower local governments in Alaska to force owners to fix them. Thankfully, however, after input from the Alaska Policy Forum and my law firm, Pacific Legal Foundation, the Alaska House has put forth a revised version of the bill that addresses many of the problems in the original by placing important limits on the authority of local governments to define “blight.” Last month, Alaska’s Senate approved a bill that would, if left in its original form, allow local jurisdictions to impose “blight taxes” on properties that are - at government officials’ discretion - deemed “blighted.” Adopting the Senate’s version of the bill would be a serious mistake. Downtown Anchorage and its surrounding neighborhoods, photographed on Saturday, May 14, 2022.
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