Monday, January 31, 2005

Another Law of Unintended Consequences

When is government going to learn? Why don’t they get it? I’m referring to the Law of Unintended Consequences that I’ve written of a number of times. In its worst form it is when lawmakers decide that they are going to change behavior or even worse, “try to make things fair.”

I learned of such a new law being introduced in the Utah legislature when I was there addressing a real estate group. This new proposal would take the retail sales taxes from every city and split it up among all of the cities in the state based upon population. Sounds fair? Right?

Step back and think of what would happen if this proposal became law?

Why no city would want to do anything for retail development. “Let them build in the next town. Why should we let them build here? Etc. etc. etc.” It would kill off retail development as no community would have any incentive to lure retailers to their town. Cities would erect barriers, trying to push retail development onto neighboring communities. It would be a mess.

I hope that this proposed law never sees the light of day.

No comments: