I’ve never really agreed with my fellow fiscal conservatives using the phrase “pro-business” to describe themselves.

Do I favor reducing excessive regulation and taxation on business as well as the individual? Yes, so, in that sense, I do meet that definition.

But the term “pro-business” can be taken to mean more. If one were to ask if I were in favor of trampling on the rights of individuals for the benefit of businesses or enterprise, I would say absolutely not.

One example of this would be allowing municipalities to force individuals to sell their land to big corporations so that these municipalities can boost their property tax revenue in the name of enterprise as recently done by the Supreme Court.

Fiscal conservatives need to, more than ever, work to educate the public that they are not blindly following any and every cause that benefits business, specifically big business and corporations, but they are sticking up for the rights of individuals as well.

What’s at stake here is not about allowing good old boys in fancy suits to have more money to spend on fine cigars and yachts. What’s at stake here is whether or not we want our government to go so far in the name of trying to help us out as to take away our right to self-determination.

I don’t call this viewpoint “pro-business,” as much as I would call it something more like “pro-economic freedom.”

Matthew Mower, Lewiston

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