Historic Rehabilitation: SB444

Virginia Senate Bill #444, which has been enacted into law, is short but complicated. Basically, it provides that, if you get your home declared "historic" and make it a tourist attraction, then some of the income you might theoretically make will be tax-free. Full text:

http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+SB444ER

Everybody in the General Assembly seems to like this one. I don't have a problem with its existence, but I, personally, don't like it.

My home, which is known to cyberspace as the Cat Sanctuary, is in fact an historic site. Virginians love history, especially family history, and most of us have inherited masses of it. Before the "planners" had goaded large numbers of Virginians to register their homes as historic shrines, it had occurred to me that the Cat Sanctuary has an excellent claim to be one. At least two chapters of the history of this corner of the Blue Ridge Mountains could, I thought, be made into books.

And the relatives who share this corner of the mountains with the cats and me said things like: "Write books with our names in them? Even the names of our great-great-grandfather and the people he knew? Bring tourists in? To our home? Are you out of your everlovin' mind?!"

And I said, "What could possibly be the matter with bringing in the occasional congenial, well supervised paying guest? Have I ever brought in any friends from the city whom you've had any reason to dislike, other than the idea of a young man being in our house after Dad moved into the retirement project?"

And they said, "But have you seen all the regulations that are cluttering up the books these days? It couldn't be just the occasional congenial paying guest. We'd have to open our homes to everybody, including professional lobbyists against everything any of us has ever stood for. And take out insurance policies to cover suicidal idiots who want to throw themselves off steep banks. And probably flatten out the road so that it would be 'accessible' to people who aren't physically fit to be here...and...how can you even think about such a thing? Are you out of your everlovin' mind?"

And they had a point. This is the way regulation destroys legitimate enterprise in the United States today.

The micromanagers want to turn every independent business and profession into a government job, with enough hour-counting, paperwork, and supervision to destroy any possible pleasure in any possible form of employment...enough to make people give up oldfashioned ideas about independence, initiative, reputation, and just settle into being a welfare cheat, since if you're going to feel like a slave in any case you might as well at least have the satisfaction of being a lazy slave.

Would I register my home as "historic" as an alternative to having it commandeered as a bear and coyote preserve? Maybe. But only that. I don't want to make my home the property of the state. I don't want to be a state employee. I want to be a private owner of my own home.

I don't see anything in SB444 guaranteeing that the "historic property" is its owners' castle, that what they do in it is sacred, free from any form of intrusion not based on a valid warrant for police interference with a crime against an actual victim.

I don't see any guarantees that the "historic property" can be opened to the public at the convenience and discretion of its owners, or that any behavior on the part of visitors that is not something the owners want to have in their homes may result in the immediate eviction of the visitors. (Most specifically, before opening my home to any visitors, I want a guarantee that any behavior that resembles an attempt to regulate or micromanage anything private people do in their own homes will result in the immediate eviction of the visitors.)

For fellow Virginians who want to exploit the historic value of your homes, I offer this warning: Learn from members of the professions who formed "professional associations" with the goal of "maintaining quality standards" for our professional practices, only to find ourselves competing unequally with colleagues who either started out with bigger bank accounts or, more often operated with lower ethical standards, to "maintain quality standards" defined as "spending lots and lots of money on 'continuing education' and ever-increasing numbers of licensing fees."

My advice: Don't fall for it. Don't subscribe to "minimal regulations" that will start to grow as soon as a critical mass of people tolerate them. Ban the regulations. Demand legislation that makes it a crime for anyone else to try to regulate what you decide to do with your home, whether your home is an "historic property" or not.

You don't have to go on using an outhouse forever because one was built on your historic property in 1812. You don't have to go on using a water-flush toilet, if you can afford to dispense with one, because your grandparents installed one in 1912. Your property may be the scene where an historic invention was built, an historic work of art was created, an historic change in the law was effected, an historic figure lived, or an historic battle was fought--and you may have a natural, hereditary right to show what you choose to preserve of the historic sight to other people--but it's still your home. Don't buy into any "preservation" schemes that don't specifically spell that out.