Farmers, environmentalists, and other uncommon coalition partners have joined together to defeat I-933 in the state of Washington and similar initiatives in the West. I-933 is a costly scheme that would force communities to choose between paying millions of dollars to special interests to obey basic city zoning ordinances and environmental and smart growth laws, or to waive these laws. A similar initiative passed in Oregon in 2004 and so far there have been about $5 billion dollars in claims filed against taxpayers there. These types of initiatives are now being run in five other western states in 2006. However, in the state of Washington and elsewhere, a strong, extremely diverse coalition has emerged to stop the latest hijacking of the initiative process by right-wing extremists. The crop art is below the fold.
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