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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jttmab who wrote (51611)	7/4/2005 3:26:22 PM
From: geode00	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Utah's new law: Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. (R) on March 17 signed into law Senate Bill 184, effectively preventing the exercise of eminent domain authority by redevelopment agencies, which otherwise had the power to transfer land from one private entity to another. Local governments may still use eminent domain for more traditionally defined and understood "public purposes." First State Legislature to Act Utah appears to be the first state to take legislative action to curb the use of eminent domain by local governments. The use of eminent domain by local governments has grown over the past 30 years as cities have taken private property from one owner to give or sell to another private owner whose proposed use promises increased tax revenue or other economic benefits. The Michigan supreme court ended the practice there in July 2004 by reversing the infamous 1981 Poletown decision, which had allowed a Michigan city to remove more than a thousand private homeowners from land that was then given to General Motors.... According to New London officials, condemnation and taking of the property by eminent domain is necessary not because the property is uncared-for or a nuisance, but because the new development would support more jobs and create more city tax revenues than the current homes and small businesses. According to Alex Epstein, a fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, "This type of justification was given more than 10,000 times between 1998 and 2002, and across 41 states, to use eminent domain (or its threat) to seize private property. The attitude behind these seizures was epitomized by a Lancaster, California city attorney explaining why a 99¢ Only store should be condemned to make way for a Costco: '99 Cents produces less than $40,000 [a year] in sales taxes, and Costco was producing more than $400,000. You tell me, which was more important?'"... ============ It's an odd duck. It sure seems capitalist-friendly but the rightwing apparently thinks it's too capitalist-friendly. It has something to dislike for the entire political spectrum.