Mike Taylor’s Platform for U.S. Representative
Mike Taylor seeks a nation of liberty; a nation in which all individuals are
sovereign over their lives and no individuals are forced
to sacrifice their values for the benefit of others. Mike Taylor believes that
respect for individual rights is the essential precondition for a free and
prosperous world, that force and fraud must be eliminated
from human relationships, and that only through freedom can peace and
prosperity be realized. Consequently, the government should defend each person’s
right to engage in any activity that is peaceful, non-destructive and honest.
The following text set forth these basic principles and some of the policies
derived from them. The goal, however, is nothing more nor less than a nation
set free in our lifetime, and it is to this end that the people may take these
stands.
Mike Taylor, as a Libertarian, seeks the maximum protection for the rights of
people against any violation, be it by other people, other nations, or our own
government. It is Mike Taylor’s belief that, so long as a person does not
violate the rights of others, he or she should be left
free and unrestrained. Some aspects of government tend to operate on an
opposing principle, that the state is controller and the individual the
servant, to act only as directed by those in power. Mike Taylor denies the
right of any government to coerce peaceful citizens. Governments exist for the
sole purpose of defending the freedoms of their citizens. These freedoms
include the right to life; the right to liberty of thought, speech and action;
and the right to property. When government violates these freedoms- by
initiating force against them, by prohibiting the act and means of
self-defense, by censoring thought, word and deed, or by taking property
without the consent of the owner- the government must be
brought to heel. Government is, essentially, raw concentrated force and
thus prone to abuse. It is established and tolerated only as
the agent and servant of the people- not their controller. The force of
government must be used only in response to an attack,
fraud, or other initiation of force against an individual, group or government
by another individual, group or government. Governments have no business
interfering in voluntary and contractual relations among individuals. Only to
prevent or to rectify acts of fraud should government step in – never for
purposes of redistributing wealth or providing special privilege to a few.
Under no circumstances should government be allowed to
prefer one set of people or handicap another, for whatever reason. All people
should be equal under the law, free to deal with one another in a free market,
the only system compatible with the principle of individual rights. The power
of government must be kept to the minimum necessary to
protect the rights of citizens, and no more. Granting more power than that
minimum allows the corrupt, the ambitious, and the tyrannical to run roughshod
over the rights of the citizen. It is Mike Taylor’s goal to contest this trend,
to stop its expansion and to reverse it, working towards the ideal society
envisioned by the Founders and enshrined in the Constitution of the United States of America.
I. PERSONAL FREEDOM AND CIVIL
LIBERTIES
No conflict exists between civil order and individual rights. Both concepts are
based on the same fundamental principle: that no individual, group, or
government may initiate force against any other individual, group, or
government with out provocation or just cause. It is Mike Taylor’s goal of
maximizing individual freedom. This is his political viewpoint, not a system of
morality. The policies he will advocate will create a society where people can
follow their own, sometimes differing, ideas of what is right, as long as they
allow others to do the same.
1. CRIME AND THE JUSTICE SYSTEM
Violent crime threatens the lives, happiness, and belongings of Americans. At
the same time, governmental violations of rights undermine the people’s sense
of justice. The appropriate way to suppress crime is through consistent and
impartial enforcement of laws protecting individual rights.
The present system of criminal justice is based on punishment by the
government, with little or no restitution to the victim. It does not provide
justice for the victims, and it fails even to deter those criminals who have
already been caught and punished.
Mike Taylor will advocate for each individual offender to make restitution
to his or her victims, or survivors whenever possible. This will provide solid
justice for those who have been wronged, and will establish in the criminal’s
mind the connection between the crime and the damage done to the victim.
Government payments to victims which are financed by taxpayers, or by fines on
all offenders, should be reimbursed by the offending criminal through time
served and/or direct compensation.
In civil cases, Mike Taylor will work for fairness in regards to liability,
and no-fault insurance laws, which deprive the victim of the right to recover
damages in civil suits against those responsible for injuries.
b. Rights of the Victim
Mike Taylor supports institutional changes, consistent with respect for the rights of the
accused, that would permit victims to participate in the prosecution in criminal
cases.
c. Defense and Retaliation
The only legitimate use of force and the threat of force are to protect
individual rights – life, liberty, and justly acquired property – from
aggressors including government. People may employ defensive actions including
force to thwart an act of aggression while it is in progress, including force
to rectify a completed act of aggression by securing just compensation from the
aggressor. Mike Taylor will advocate reduction or removal of government
restrictions upon the use of defensive actions, including force if merited.
Mike Taylor favors the repeal or amendment of laws prohibiting actions, which do not harm
others through trespass, theft, forceful coercion or fraud, otherwise known as
“victimless crimes.” These laws include, among others, prohibitions
or restrictions on:
i. the production, sale, possession, or consumption
of food or some drugs;
ii. Adult consensual sexual relations in private;
iii. The possession, sale, use, production, or distribution of sexually
explicit material (involving only adults); and
iv. Gambling.
Once these laws are repealed or amended, persons currently imprisoned or
convicted solely for the commission of such crimes should be pardoned and
released.
Mike Taylor strongly supports the police function of protecting individual
rights and properties; however, in almost every case where there is a group
given authority over others, there will be those that over exert that
authority. Police are no exception. Mike Taylor will advocate for removal or amendment of
existing laws that would potentially allow police harassment of anyone,
including among others racial and religious minorities, gays and lesbians,
prostitutes, nonconformists, and young people. Harassment includes not only
beatings, but also I.D. checks, urine tests, and stop-and-frisk actions where
no reasonable cause for suspicion exists, as well as arrests for crimes whose
penalty does not include imprisonment. Mike Taylor calls for the immediate
repeal or amendment of all vagrancy, loitering, and curfew laws, such laws
provide a pretext for harassment and potentially violate the rights to due
process. Mike Taylor supports the enforcement of laws which prohibit
entrapment. Mike Taylor believes all government employees and elected
representatives must be required to comply with the same laws that apply to
private citizens.
f. Safeguards for the Criminally Accused
Until such time as persons are proved guilty of crimes, they should be accorded
respect for their individual rights. Mike Taylor is thus in favor of
maintaining present safeguards of the rights of the criminally accused. Mike
advocates the repeal of so-called no-knock laws and seizure of a defendant’s
assets unless admissible as evidence in court to favor innocence or guilt.
Mike Taylor supports full restitution for all loss suffered by persons
arrested, indicted, tried, imprisoned, or otherwise injured in the course of
criminal proceedings against them which do not result in their conviction. When
they are culpable, government agencies and their employees should be held
jointly and severally liable for this restitution.
Violation of the rights of innocent persons cannot further the cause of
justice. Therefore, Mike Taylor calls for the elimination of coercion from the
trial process, including forced jury service, forced testimony, or forced
appearances.
Mike Taylor advocates the removal of the judicial practice of imprisoning
individuals for contempt of court without a trial and other due process of law.
Mike Taylor supports the established right of juries to judge the law as
well as the facts. Mike further calls for a law requiring judges to notify
jurors of their right and responsibility to judge the law and its application
to the case at hand.
Mike Taylor advocates for the removal of governmental grants of immunity
from prosecution to compel or acquire testimony. However, reduced sentencing
and granting separate facilities after prosecution would be useful and just as
productive.
Mike Taylor advocates for an end of the use of federal civil rights statutes
and the legal concept of separate sovereigns being used to circumvent the
protection against double jeopardy by punishing an individual for the
equivalent federal violation after having been punished by the state or vice
versa. The accused can only be tried by the state or the federal government -
not by both for the same act under any circumstances.
Mike Taylor will advocate a moratorium on any new tax-financed prison
construction. Granting pardons to persons convicted solely of victimless crimes
(Noted previously) should free more than enough space in existing facilities.
Until the capacity is established of prisons upon the release of unjustly
imprisoned citizens, building costs should be placed on hold.
Asset forfeiture laws, prior to or without criminal conviction or civil
judgment, are Bills of Attainder and as such violate Article 1, Sections 9 and 10
of the United States Constitution. They provide temptation for government abuse
and corruption. Mike Taylor therefore demands the repeal of all asset
forfeiture laws, and any law which allows for the seizure of property except as
punishment or restitution, as determined by a court and jury.
Laws should be impartial and should not attempt to make unpleasant or unpopular
points of view a “crime”. Mike Taylor support the repeal of legal penalties on
freedom of thought, freedom of association and freedom of speech. Crimes
against persons or property should be treated as crimes. A crime is not
strengthened or lessened in importance by the perpetrator’s system of beliefs.
Mike Taylor advocates an end for any government spending to compel, prohibit,
encourage or discourage reproduction, abortion, sterilization, or birth
control. Mike advocates for the removal or amendment of laws either requiring
or prohibiting school classes on sex education. Mike advocates for the rights
of parents to be allowed to choose schools according
to their own beliefs on the subject matter of the institution.
Marriage is, historically speaking, a private matter. As such government
efforts to define marriage, and government restriction of marriage through
licensing and other fees, are violations of freedom of individual conscience.
Rights to marriage are between the people involved and should not be abridged
by government or civil persecution.
The process of aging does not deprive any individual of his or her rights. Mike
Taylor is for stopping the violation of the rights of older people, including
forced commitment to nursing homes, forced submission to medication or
treatment, and seizure or control of property or prerogatives. Mike is for the
repeal of any laws either requiring or prohibiting forced retirement of private
employees at any age.
5. GOVERNMENT AND MENTAL HEALTH
Mike Taylor advocates a reduction or removal of involuntary commitment of any
person to a mental institution. To incarcerate an individual not convicted of
any crime, but merely asserted to be mentally ill, is a violation of the
individual’s rights. Mike further advocates:
a. the repeal of all laws permitting involuntary psychiatric treatment of any
person, including those incarcerated in prisons or mental institutions unless
it is determined they are not capable of making a sound decision or are a
threat to those around them;
b. an immediate end to the spending of tax money for any program of psychiatric
or psychological research or treatment outside of individuals that have been
medically determined to be unable to make sound decisions for themselves or
unless spending is for educational purposes;
c. an end to all involuntary treatments of any person by such means as
psycho-surgery, drug therapy, and aversion therapy; and
d. an end to tax supported mental health propaganda campaigns and community
mental health centers and programs outside the scope of educational purposes.
The individual’s privacy, property, and right to speak or not to speak should
not be infringed by the government. The government should not use electronic or
other means of covert surveillance of an individual’s actions or private
property without the consent of the owner or occupant without just cause or
without a writ supplied by the court system. Any government compilations of
data on an individual should be conducted only with
the consent and/or knowledge of the persons from whom the data are sought or
through legal writ as provided by the Constitution of the United States of America.
Mike Taylor supports legislation to require that every government agency:
a. make public the nature, but not the contents, of files it maintains on U.S.
citizens;
b. notify citizens of files pertaining to them;
c. provide the citizen(s) a copy of his or her file upon request;
d. allow individuals to add comments to their files; and
e. Notify the citizen whenever information from his or her file is provided to
another person, group, or government agency.
Government should not violate private contractual guarantees of
confidentiality regarding correspondence, bank and other financial transactions
and records, doctors and lawyers’ communications, employment records, and the
like. Mike Taylor denounces the government’s efforts to limit the use of
encryption technology (secret encoding) by the private sector by imposing a
standard for encryption hardware or software.
Mike Taylor advocates a stop to the creation of any government-administered
identification system including issuance of Universal Identification numbers, internal
passports, work permits, or identity cards to individuals, or any other means
of monitoring the activities of individuals. Mike opposes the use of the Social
Security number as an identification number.
Mike Taylor calls for all laws, regulations, and ordinances to be written in plain language that could be understood by any
person of average intelligence and education.
Mike Taylor supports legislation to prohibit any national, state or local
government or special district from annexing any new areas without the two
thirds majority consent of all residents and property owners in the area to be annexed.
a. Mike Taylor supports legislation to include None of
the Above as an option on the ballot for all nationally elective offices.
Should None of the Above win a plurality of votes for any office, none of the
candidates on the ballot for that office would be eligible to serve for the
duration of the term for which the election is being held. Either the office
can stand vacant, or another election held, in which none of the previous
candidates are allowed to run.
b. Mike calls for the amendment of the Constitution to allow an appropriate
number of voters, upon petition, to have placed upon the ballot in the
following general election binding initiatives and referenda, pertaining either
to legislative or Constitutional provisions, which would become effective upon
voter approval.
c. Mike calls for the strengthening of the right of citizens to recall all
elected officials.
d. Mike Taylor calls for the repeal of those
provisions of the Election Code which make attainment of ballot status
unreasonably difficult for new parties and independent candidates. Mike calls
for full and open counting of all write-in votes. Mike calls for harsher
penalties for election fraud and genuine efforts to uncover and prosecute such
fraud. Mike calls for a return to the traditional state control of elections
including federal elections.
e. Mike Taylor calls for an end to the practice of
tax-supported funding of primary elections. Parties should have to pay for the
costs of their own nominating processes instead of forcing that burden upon
unwilling taxpayers.
f. Mike Taylor calls for an end to
gerrymandering/redistricting for the purpose of manipulating the vote.
g. Mike Taylor opposes the use of any electronic
voting system which does not produce a permanent hardcopy record of each
individual vote; further, Mike favors systems where contested results are
obtained by counting the hardcopy ballots.
Mike Taylor holds that human rights should not be denied or
abridged on the basis of original nationality. He agrees that all
non-legal residents should be deported immediately
after being discovered as a non-legal resident. However, sting operations to
hunt down non-legal residence can infringe on the rights of legal residence and
discovery/investigation should be based on justifiable probable cause. Mike supports
measures that punish employers who hire undocumented workers.
Undocumented non-citizens should be denied the fundamental freedom to labor
and to move about unmonitored. However, legal immigration must not be
restricted for reasons of race, religious or political creed, age, or sexual
preference. To prevent higher tax burden, Mike calls for an opportunity for non-legal
residence to file, with filing fee, a petition for work visas and/or
citizenship to legitimize his or her residence status within our nation. He
therefore calls for the enforcement of all restrictions on illegal-immigration
and a removal of all people who have entered the country illegally upon
recognition unless said individuals have applied for and paid dues for filing
for legal residence/citizenship.
Mike Taylor opposes government welfare payments to non-citizens just as he
opposes government welfare payments to other persons of sound mind and body.
Because he supports the right of workers to cross borders legally, Mike
encourages improvement in government controlled work visas. Mike welcomes all
refugees to our shores who arrive through legal means. He welcomes legal
refugees to our shores and encourages assisting their passage to help them
escape tyranny and/or improve their economic prospects if proper channels are pursued in making this passage.
To secure the right of self-defense, against the government as well as
individual criminals, Mike Taylor believes in the right to keep and bear arms.
He opposes all laws restricting the ownership, manufacture, transfer, or sale
of firearms or ammunition. He favors the repeal of all laws banning the
concealment or carrying of weapons or prohibiting pocket weapons.
Mike Taylor disavows the doctrine of sovereign immunity, which holds that governments
may not be sued without their permission, nor held accountable for their
actions. Governments and government officials and agents must
be held responsible and accountable for their actions, equal to all
other citizens under the law. Officials who violate the law should be
prosecutable for their crimes. Restitution must be made for any and every
violation by a government official of another’s rights, property or freedom;
this restitution must come from the personal assets of the official.
Mike Taylor favors an Amendment to the Constitution requiring that no special
session may be called without the written approval of either (a) both the
Vice-President, as president of the Senate, and the Speaker of the House; or
(b) a majority of the members of each House of the Legislature. Additionally,
the President’s official call for any special session must note the cost of the
session and the source of the funding for it.
15. RIGHTS OF CHILDREN AND FAMILIES
Mike Taylor believes that family is defined by the individuals in a
relationship and feel families should be free from government intrusion and interference.
Parents, or other guardians, have the right to raise their children
according to their own standards and beliefs without interference by
government, unless they are abusing the children. Mike Taylor recognizes that
the determination of child abuse can be difficult. Only local courts should be
empowered to remove a child from his or her home, with the consent of the
community. This is not meant to preclude appropriate action when a child is in
immediate physical danger.
Because parents have these rights and responsibility toward their children,
a child may not be able to fully exercise his or her rights. However, children
always have the right to establish their maturity by assuming administration
and protection of their own rights, ending dependency upon their parents or
other guardians, and assuming all responsibilities of adulthood.
Parents have no right to abandon or recklessly endanger their children.
Whenever they are unable or unwilling to raise their children, they have the
obligation to find other person(s) willing to assume guardianship. Accordingly,
Mike Taylor opposes all laws that impede these processes, notably those
restricting private adoption services. In particular, he calls for the repeal
of all laws restricting trans-racial adoption.
A child is a human being and, as such, deserves to be treated justly. Mike
Taylor opposes the use of government imposed curfews based on age. He calls for
an end to the practice in many states of jailing children not accused of any
crime. He calls for repeal of all “children’s codes” or statutes
which abridge due process protections for young people.
II. ECONOMIC LIBERTY AND A FREE MARKET
Because each person has the right to offer goods and services to others on the
free market, Mike Taylor advocates a stop or reduction of intervention by
government into the area of economics.
Mike believes that the consumer is best served by a
free market open to all entrants. He opposes efforts to forcibly redistribute
wealth or forcibly manage trade. Government manipulation of the economy creates
an entrenched privileged class: those who control the flow of tax money. The
welfare state, supposedly designed to aid the poor, is in reality a growing
burden on all people, and injures, rather than benefits the poor, themselves.
Mike Taylor believes that all persons are entitled to keep the fruits of their
labor. He seeks to reduce government spending to an absolute minimum, reduce
taxes to match, and explore means of funding non-essential government functions
without taxation.
To the greatest extent possible, the criminal justice system should be paid for
by judgments and fines against the offenders who make it necessary. The
remaining costs should be paid for by voluntary user fees for services
rendered, minimal tax revenue and by voluntary contributions.
Mike Taylor applauds the growing movement to require user fees for government
services instead of financing them wholly from general tax revenues. Such fees
should reflect the full cost of the service so that this will be borne by the
users. However, he holds that user fees for a service which the government
provides while prohibiting competition are in effect taxes themselves, and
condemns all such monopolies.
Mike Taylor advocates a stop/reduction of new or increased taxes of any kind
and for any purpose, because any higher taxes would increase the level of
government coercion. He specifically wishes to reduce taxes on either incomes
or profits, whether personal or professional. He advocates a stop to the
creation of any new special districts with taxing authority.
Mike Taylor supports the ratification of an Amendment to the Constitution of
the United States
to amend the Sixteenth Amendment and reduce or abolish the Federal Income Tax.
Reduction of government spending should allow for alternative methods of
financing.
As interim measures, Mike Taylor supports amending the Constitution to require
voter approval in a referendum before any new taxes may be levied or the rates
of any existing taxes increased. He also supports a change in the law so that
non-payment of taxes would be only a civil offense rather than a criminal
offense as at present. No person shall ever be imprisoned for debt.
Mike Taylor calls for an exploratory commission to examine, in detail, the
feasibility of enacting a federal sales tax where taxation would be most fair.
The wealthy would pay more in taxes as a result of gaudy spending practices.
Also, there should be no taxation on standard food purchases including but not
limited to dairy, grained or meat products as such taxation may impede the
ability for lower income families or individuals to maintain a healthy
consumption of necessary nutrients.
Mike Taylor advocates a stop to the issuance of tax-supported bonds to further
industrial development or commercial enterprises. Corporatism is just as
unhealthy as socialism for the economy.
The more government takes control over education, the worse it gets. By
politicizing education, the government has ensured that spending will generally
go up while quality will generally go down. In order to reverse these trends,
Mike Taylor supports increased localization and privatization of education and education funding,
the restoration of local control over public schools, and the end of all
federal government interference in education policy. While government funding is necessary,
unqualified elected officials should not rule in areas in which they are not trained or experienced especially when it comes to the
future of our children and their education.
The bitter disputes over curriculum and teaching methods are the inevitable
result of the existence of an effective government monopoly on education. To
improve the quality of the American work force, Mike Taylor would urge
companies, both small and large, to provide any specialized funding for
education fields that would pertain to their company. This would help fund
education and better prepare today’s students for real world employment.
Decisions about educational issues such as prayer, sex education, evolution,
and so on, will no longer cause conflict when supporters of all views have a
real choice of schools. Mike Taylor advocates a stop to imposition or
restriction of any religious views on existing government schools as a
violation of the freedom of individual conscience.
Mike Taylor supports the repeal of all existing government regulations
concerning schools, whether government or private, including home schools. Such
regulations involve teacher certification or training, textbook approval,
curriculum requirements, student-teacher ratios, and general impediments to all
businesses, such as zoning ordinances. The vast majorities of elected officials
have little or no qualifications or experience as an educator and therefore
have no credibility as an education policy maker. School districts/boards
should have the power to qualify competent educators. He particularly condemns
restrictions at all levels designed to prelude entry or restrict competition in
the field of day care and pre-school centers.
Lower and middle income Americans are effectively denied freedom of choice in
education because they are taxed to support the government schools and cannot
afford to pay twice for the same service. As an interim measure to restore
choices to parents and students and to encourage development of private
alternatives, Mike Taylor supports tax credits for tuition and other
expenditures related to education, as long as the cost of the tax credits is
less than the savings caused by taking children out of the public schools
system.
Mike Taylor advocates a stop in tax support of universities, colleges, and
junior colleges, which forces lower income taxpayers to fund the higher
education of children of upper income families. Education assistance for
students should cover costs for educational institutions. Mike Taylor believes
it is better to provide money to underprivileged students for a continued
education than to blindly hand money to the institutions. This way, the
educational institution will gain money from having more students in the
classrooms and more of America’s
youth will have better opportunities for their future.
Mike Taylor supports the repeal of all taxes on the income or property of
private schools, whether profit or non-profit. These institutions are providing
a service that relieves the public school system of over crowding and provides
for quality education in their efforts.
Mike Taylor calls for the abolition centralized state purchasing of textbooks.
The political and religious demagoguery involved in these enormous purchasing
decisions has had a disastrous effect on the quality of textbooks throughout
the United States.
Government involvement in transportation has been an intolerable burden to
everyone, whether as taxpayers, travelers, shippers, or consumers. It has meant
massive violations of individual rights, threats to public safety, disruption
of neighborhoods and the environment, barriers to economic opportunity,
subsidies to special interests, and immeasurable corruption, waste, and
inefficiency. Mike Taylor supports the privatization of transportation and the
reduction of government interference in this area.
Mike Taylor supports an immediate end to most government occupational licensing
and advocates recognition of the right of each individual to contract freely
with any other individual or group to perform any non-coercive services they
may mutually agree upon. Noted exceptions would
include medical practices and other fields that inherently hold potential for
imposing on the rights of others to ensure their personal safety and wellbeing.
He calls for the abolition of most government agencies, boards, bureaus, and
commissions that license, regulate, or restrict in any way the practice of any
occupation or profession by anyone as the private industries can better
determine what is needed to perform certain
occupations. While government occupational licensing still exists, he calls for
the prohibition of discrimination against any person in the granting or
revoking of occupational licenses for reasons of race, creed, sex, age, sexual
preference, financial condition, or political beliefs.
Mike Taylor believes that most environmental problems – air and water
pollution, land erosion, ground water depletion – are due to the lack of
private property rights in the air and water and public ownership of much of
the land in the U.S..
He calls for the development and implementation of such property rights, as far
as this can be done practically. Such rights are to be awarded initially on the
basis of homesteading; i.e., those who now are benefiting from the use of the
property should be the owners until and unless they choose to transfer the
property.
For example, Mike Taylor advocates the establishment of an efficient and
just system of private water rights, applied to all bodies of water, surface
and underground. Such a system should be built upon a doctrine of first claim
and use. The allocation of water should be governed by unrestricted competition
and unregulated prices. All government restrictions upon private use, voluntary
transfer of water rights, or of the water from such rights, must be eliminated.
Government water rationing and similar despotic controls only aggravate the
waste of water.
Mike Taylor calls to repeal game laws which arbitrarily restrict or prohibit
hunting of birds or wildlife on private property with the permission of the
owner.
Mike Taylor advocates the termination of government-created franchise
privileges and governmental monopolies for such services as garbage collection,
fire protection, electricity, natural gas, cable television, telephone, or
water supplies. Furthermore, all rate regulation in these industries should be
abolished. The right to offer such services on the market should not be
curtailed by law.
He condemns all coercive monopolies. He recognizes that government is the
source of monopoly, through its grants of legal privilege to special interests
in the economy. In order to abolish monopolies, Mike Taylor advocates a strict
separation of business and state. “Anti-trust” laws do not prevent
monopoly, but foster it by limiting competition. He therefore calls for the
repeal of all “antitrust” laws.
Mike Taylor defends the right of individuals to form corporations,
cooperatives, and other types of companies based on voluntary association, but
laws of incorporation should not include grants of monopoly privilege. In
particular, he opposes special limits on the liability of corporations for
damages caused in non-contractual transactions. He also opposes state of
federal limits on the size of private companies and on the right of companies
to merge, voluntarily.
Zoning ordinances have clearly indicated the corruption inherently attendant to
such laws as well as their harmful social and economic consequences. Note the
city of Houston
as an example of the virtue of a non-zoning policy as an example of why other
cities might consider undertaking a phase-out of all zoning ordinances.
It is an unconscionable conflict of interest for elected officials to increase
their own compensation. Mike Taylor calls for a Constitutional amendment
prohibiting governing bodies in the United States from raising their
own salaries or benefits except by consent of a majority of the voters through
referendum but allowing them to decrease their compensation at will.
