Enact a Constitutional Amendment Now to Democratize Planning and Health Boards

It is time for the West Virginia Legislature to consider an amendment either making various health, economic development, and other planning commissions elected, or strip them of their power to enact law.

Rule of law is the most important guarantor of democracy. In a free society, laws are made by representatives of the people. They are strictly written and enforced consistently. One example of where rule of law breaks down is when government organs seek to perpetuate themselves and enhance their powers.

The 20th century brought with it occasional manic periods of planning. These often followed years of tremendous expansion that ended with the inevitable corrections that caught the poorly prepared off guard. Planners seek to regulate development and growth to fit their vision of what is proper and appropriate. To achieve their goals, they often require sweeping legal mandates enabling them to do what they feel is right and proper. This removes certain aspects of regulation from the legislative and places it in unelected bodies, thus undermining the democratic ideal of rule of law. Local planning agencies, such as the health departments, enact legislation routinely that affect large numbers of people and businesses. Why do unelected boards have such power?

A multiplicity of laws or a vague legal code affects rule of law in adverse ways as well. Individuals or businesses can find their freedom to act hampered by a bewildering array of regulations that even the most observant may find themselves violating. When the government enacts vague, badly written, or inconsistently enforced laws, this also enhances the confusion. At this point the government becomes the arbiter, the main source of guidance, and the enforcement arm. This grants it extraordinary power as well as the ability to act in arbitrary ways. The United States tax code, enforced by the Internal Revenue Service, remains a prime example of a system whose complexity breeds fear of the government among law abiding citizens that ought to be considered unnatural in a free society, not a part of doing business. At both the federal and state level, the tax code has been used to harass law abiding opponents of the party in power. How much simpler would life be if we maintained the simple, restrained ideal of government originally created!

Real economic education in the schools would prevent much of the pain caused by such periods, but many would rather just blame capitalism itself and beg the government’s assistance.

In short, planning undermines rule of law, expands the power of unelected authorities, and diminishes freedom. It is time to democratize the process.