When the environmentalists win, we all lose

So this is what it looks like when the extreme environmentalists get their way.

For two decades, enviros in our state have been striving to shut down homebuilding.

No-growthers have argued, litigated, legislated, and lobbied for every law, regulation, tax and impact fee designed to stop homebuilders from building homes.

Enviro groups with righteous-sounding names like Futurewise and Earth First! fight against virtually every single development and every single homebuilder.

State and local government agencies such as the Department of Ecology and the Puget Sound Partnership join the fray as well.

All these self-anointed priests of nature want to stop growth. Well, they succeeded.

Growth has stopped. Housing starts in our state have been reduced 67 percent (from 52,000 to 17,000) since 2005.

The enviros won.

And here’s what happens when enviros win and growth stops.

• Unemployment rises. More than 62,000 construction workers in our state are out of work. The enviros and our Governor are fond of stating that these 62,000 workers can be retrained to be computer technicians or state workers. But what happens when everyone works for the state? Look at Greece or Spain for an example.

• Budget deficits skyrocket. State government lost its cash cow, the construction industry. As a result, the state budget deficit is $3 billion and climbing.

Our governor and some leading Democrats believe the state can tax itself out of the budget crisis.

But you cannot tax an industry when it no longer exists.

•  Non-construction companies suffer. When homebuilding stops, almost everyone suffers.

Newspapers lose advertising revenue from the building industry, so reporters get laid off. Nurseries don’t sell plants and shrubs to new homebuyers, because there aren’t any, and therefore nursery workers are laid off.

• Charitable giving declines. Builders are very generous. They sponsor baseball teams, soccer teams, and basketball teams.

They contribute to the arts, the community, the Rotary and the Red Cross.

So when growth stops and builders close their doors, charitable giving declines.

The enviros got their way. How do you like it?

Tom McCabe is executive

vice president of the Building Industry Association of Washington.

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