A ballot initiative passed by Oregon voters in the November 2004 election reverses a trend in that state, which has some of the most restrictive land-use rules in the country. The new measure allows owners to prove that zoning or environmental regulations will reduce the investment value of their property, forcing the government to either compensate them for those losses or exempt them from the rules. Describing Oregon’s strict regulation, coauthor of the ballot measure Ross Day said, “If Enron does something like this, people call it theft. If Oregon does it, they call it land-use planning.” Think of a way to counter his point.