Posted on 06/19/2007 5:08:18 AM PDT by Jarhead1957
June 18, 2007 Texas Governor Vetoes Eminent Domain Reform All Texans Remain Vulnerable to Abuse Arlington, Va.-On Friday, June 15, 2007, Texas Governor Rick Perry vetoed HB 2006, an eminent domain reform measure that overwhelmingly passed both chambers of the Texas Legislature. The bill was designed to close a loophole that remained from an earlier bill Perry signed two years ago in response to the U.S. Supreme Courts infamous Kelo v. City of New London decision. Perry becomes only the fourth governor to veto an eminent domain bill since Kelo. In the three other states, however, reform still passed when the Iowa Legislature overrode one veto, New Mexicos executive signed other reform legislation this year and Arizona reformed its laws by citizen initiative. With this veto, Governor Perry has left every home, farm, ranch and small business owner vulnerable to the abuse of eminent domain, said Steven Anderson, director of the Institute for Justices Castle Coalition, a national grassroots advocacy group committed to ending the private-to-private transfer of property using eminent domain. The bill would have closed the large loophole that remained after the enactment of SB 7, the 2005 legislation that allows local authorities to forcibly acquire private property for the purpose of so-called slum or blight removal. Under Texas law, the terms slum and blight are defined so broadly that they can be applied to any property, meaning no ones property is safe. HB 2006 required, with certain limited exceptions, that all takings be made for a public use, which would have stopped eminent domain abuse throughout the state. HB 2006 also included procedural and compensation changes, and it was the latter that Perry cited as the reason for his veto. Compensation concerns were totally overblown by government agencies, Anderson said. Comprehensive protection against eminent domain abuse for all Texans was scuttled because of unfounded fears that property acquisitions would cost substantially more. Dollars drive the abuse, and now dollars drive this veto. In both cases, the property owners are the ones who end up getting hurt.
Perry is the living caricature of what every liberal thinks a Republican is—a sellout to big business interests.
Gov. Goodhair knows he’ll never face the voters of Texas again, so he’s free to stab them in the back and collect his payoffs from corporations, both foreign and domestic, that may want Grandpa’s ranch for their headquarters.
Yep. Developers and Pharmaceutical companies in particular.
Yep! And even worse, in my opinion, Is the fact that the major entities (Texas Assoc. of Counties, Texas Municipal League) lobbing for this veto used YOUR tax money against you in their effort.
Cant’ have a pesky little thing like Emminent Domain reform getting in the way of the Trans-Texas Corridor.
is this veto proof?
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding......We have a winner!!!!
I am proud to have voted for Kinky.....the first time I have ever not voted for a Republican in Texas.
May God have mercy on our country now that our eyes are open.
There must be something in the water in Texas that makes a setting governor of Texas and an immediate past governor of Texas ignore the will of the people. They seem to act like Mexican dictators.
Maybe they find that form of government more to their liking than the one our founding fathers constructed.
Perry was just at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting....just not too long ago. He must have gotten his orders....you know, from that "innocent" little group.
In your opinion, if a private landowner is required to relinquish his land for a public works project, how much compensation should he receive from the taxpayers?
Market value? 25% above market value? Double market value?
Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding......We have a winner!!!!
BTTT!
Perry sold out to big Pharm by. He is going to put federally funded cameras on the Interstate to catch speeders (5mph over gets you 1 warning) and now he need the eminent domain to run the TTC through Texas.
I went to hi first inaugural ball. What a traitor he has turned out to be. I am shocked at how right many libs were about the sellout to big business. Too bad those same libs are sellout to big government.
I think it passed both houses of the Texas Legislature by wide margins, so it ought to be.
sOUNDS LIKE.
YUCK.
THANKS.
Yep.
It must have worked; it has not made the news.
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