OLYMPIA -- The Legislature moved another step closer Friday to imposing tolls for a new state Route 520 bridge, with the House approving a study group to help determine how the state would collect the tolls.

Ken and Barbara Miller have fought for 6 1/2 years to retain their property in Tacoma- property that is the site of a historically recognized home (that Sound Transit will tear down)- and for which they will receive less money than the amount it will take to pay off the attorneys’ fees accrued from their effort to defend themselves.

Sound Transit and other government agencies have essentially proven that any agency that fancies your property can take your property, and:

1. Not have to explain why they aren’t considering equal or superior properties

2. Not have to sell it back to you if they don’t use it in a reasonable amount of time

3. Can benefit by the increase in value if said property is sold, even if they don’t use it for the purpose stated upon condemnation…

Additionally, by no means are they in the habit of paying you what you might think is fair (a smaller nearby property was valued years ago for far more money than the Millers will recieve from Sound Transit).

All the agencies have to do is wear you down, financially and emotionally, by throwing a barrage of lawyers at you for years at a time, limiting your public speech, and waiting for you to run out of money to defend yourself.

The Millers were prevented from telling their story by a gag order. Now that the proceeding is over, in an email to me from Ken Miller, he mentions the proverbial tip of the iceberg regarding Sound Transit’s draconian treatment of he and his wife:

“(Because of a motion in limine by Sound Transit we were not allowed to mention any information about the history of our case past payment offers or any other details about the now over 6 1/2 years since first contact with us from Sound Transit. Sound Transit did not have restrictions regarding testimony.)”

One might assume that our eminent domain laws and/or our state Supreme Court would protect us from govermental hubris, but our state Supreme Court upheld Sound Transit’s actions regarding notification of property owners in condemnation actions (the Supreme Court seems to defer to state agencies as the “expert” in these situations, neglecting to do their own evaluations).

However, Sound Transit’s lack of notification to the Millers spurred on our legislature to adopt a new law requiring a simple notification letter to be sent to folks whose land a governmental agency wants to take.

I would expect that there will be more new laws coming soon limiting eminent domain in Washington State, spurred on by Sound Transit’s aggressive actions. All three of the points outlined above are being considered for eminent domain reform this year. Support your legislators that are sponsoring these bills.

One can only hope that the Washington State legislature will act to protect Washington’s citizens from further eminent domain abuse.

In the meantime, we can thank the Millers for their courage, and for blazing the trail so that the rest of us have a chance of being treated better in the future.

Buried in the Seattle Times story about the road-toll initiative, however, is the most-likely explanation as to why legislators are backing it: The Washington State government needs a new source of money to compensate for falling revenues due to more fuel-efficient cars. Apparently the growth of state gas-tax revenue is slowing and, as vehicles become more fuel-efficient, officials are afraid tax collections won't keep up with their spending projections. So instead of allowing people to reap

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