Those who wield the police power of government never cease to amaze me by the creative ways they try to hide their exercise of the raw political power. George Orwell would be proud of Wake County?s latest example; a proposed Adequate Public Facilities ordinance. Stan Norwalk writing in today?s News & Observer touts this device as the solution to the Wake County Schools ?crisis.?
If you want to build a home for a willing buyer, you (read evil developer in Newspeak) must first obtain a building permit. The purpose of this permit is to ensure the buyer that the home is built to certain government imposed standards. But wait, Mr. Norwalk has another purpose of the building permit: extortion. If a developer wants a permit, he must either wait until the schools and other public facilities have been built or, as Cary did several years ago, ?allow? the developer to pay a fee. This is the same as a kidnapper who ?allows? the victim to pay a ransom to get his child back.
But there is one major problem with Mr. Norwalk?s extortion plan. If it is to work, all of the municipalities and the county must enter into an extortion conspiracy. If one city fails to extort the evil developers, they will build in that city leaving the rest holding the bag.
It is wonderful to behold how more than 200 years ago the founders of this country and this state clearly envisioned Mr. Norwalk?s extortion plan and devised a fragmented system of government that creates competition between jurisdictions helping to prevent those like Mr. Norwalk who want to violate the basic principles of limited governmental power. It is little wonder that so many governmental officials who are frustrated by this fragmented system want to consolidate city and county government to better facilitate their extortion plans.
