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I begin with a principle: the proper role of law and government is limited and specific. Law exists to protect the equal rights that every person already possesses--rights to life, liberty, and property. These rights existed before, and beyond, government. The law's only legitimate function is to organize the individual right of self-defense on a collective scale, so that no person may harm another's person or property with impunity. Beyond that protective purpose, using law becomes a violation of the rights it was meant to secure.
When government uses its taxing power to take from some citizens in order to provide benefits to others, it crosses that line. The recently passed millages illustrate the problem. The law was employed to extract money by force from property owners and redirect it to particular programs and groups. Some people receive services; others simply pay. That's not the protection of equal rights. It's the use of law as an instrument of plunder and transfer.
Voter approval, or a history of past practice, does not change the character of the act. With low voter turnout, a small portion of the community imposes ongoing costs on every property owner. Once this method is accepted, any cause becomes a candidate for the next compulsory levy.
I appreciate libraries, recreation, and help for older residents. Those are valuable goods. The question is how they should be supported. Families, private donors, user fees, civic organizations, and voluntary associations have provided them previously without compulsion. Using taxes instead converts free cooperation into legal compulsion, which is wrong.
Ask me for a donation, but keep government focused on its only legitimate purpose: the equal protection of every person's rights to life, liberty, and property. That is the standard that respects both justice and liberty.
Allen Ludlow
Wilson Township