TPPF: Annexation in San Antonio is a Property Grab. 4 Reasons to Pass Annexation Reform.

Pointing to a new forced annexation of 87 square miles and 52,000 Texans in San Antonio, the Texas Public Policy Foundation proposes passage of annexation reform.

TPPF backed  SB 1639 and HB 2221 from the 2015 Texas Legislature. These were good reforms for these 4 reasons:

  • “growing government spending is not a reasonable justification for trampling on someone’s private property rights”
  • Reform needs to include cities providing “a written contract for services shown in at least two public hearings”
  • Reforms must include a required tapproval by a majority of residents
  • Local governments should not “impose their taxes, debts and big-government structures on an unwilling populace”

TPPF

Safety + Eminent Domain = Lege Trend: No Eminent Domain for Dangerous Products in a Pipeline

Kentucky Legislature is debating whether to permit a proposed repurposing of an existing natural gas pipeline. The debate has brought to light 70 year old easements.

Clearly thoughts have changed in 70 years. The safety of the types of fluids that traverse the pipes, plus recent safety issues are weighing on legislators.

Here’s what one Kentucky legislator said publicly:

“I say that there should not be a legal argument that you have the right to take someone’s property to put a dangerous, hazardous chemical pipeline in through the governments taking of the property,” Kay said. “We will look at this issue.”

CN 2 Pure Politics: Lawmakers express concerns over proposed repurposing of natural gas pipeline

UPDATE Trump, the Widow, Eminent Domain, CATO & Washington Post

Once upon a time, Trump sought to use eminent domain against a widow’s home to obtain land to build a limo parking lot. Today the story is on the front of the Washington Post Style Section.

CATO: Donald Trump, Eminent Domain, and the Widow’s House

Washington Post: The time Donald Trump’s empire took on a stubborn widow — and lost

 

Information Intelligence Ausgust 27, 2015:

CATO, the libertarian leaning think tank, sounding the horn on Donald Trump and his reliance on eminent domain.

The juicy bits:

  • “But no one seems to have brought up a bullying business practice he’s particularly fond of: eminent domain.”
  • Trump benefits “from the coercive power of the state to kick innocent Americans out of their homes.”
  • “Conservatives were especially outraged by this assault on property rights. Not Donald Trump, though. He told Neil Cavuto on Fox News: “I happen to agree with it 100%. if you have a person living in an area that’s not even necessarily a good area, and … government wants to build a tremendous economic development, where a lot of people are going to be put to work and … create thousands upon thousands of jobs and beautification and lots of other things, I think it happens to be good.””

CATO

Campaign Trend: Eminent Domain in a RED State Senate Race

In Mississippi, the Republican candidate for Senate district 37, wants voters to know she is pro private propety rights and supports eminent domain reform.

The Republican says her opponent, the former state Senator back in 2009 “sided with Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, who had vetoed a bill that would limit eminent domain. Barbour argued the limitation would hurt economic development, and Dearing agreed.”

Mississippi voters later approved eminent domain reforms in 2011.

Gulf Live via AP: Analysis: Former lawmakers aim for Mississippi Senate seats

Texas Citizens Link Harm to Private Properties from Economic Development.

Bloomberg: The Tiny Town that Hates Elon Musk

Background: Boca Chica, with its 26 residents, is home to Space X launch site. Space X has a safety plan for launch days:

  • The Safety Plan limits the town residents movements on launch days.
    • Texans don’t love being told what to do, when to do it. They’re an independent lot.
  • SpaceX’ will be sweeping the beach with drones and video surveillance.
    • Texans love private property rights and don’t love drones spying on them.

What the residents are saying:

  • “I’m like, ‘Are you out of your mind?’” said Cheryl Stevens, 55, who settled in Boca Chica Village a decade ago in search of quiet, rustic beauty. “It’s like Nazi Germany.”
  • Seizures of Private Land is on their mind: “When we first moved here, I just felt closer to the Lord,” said Bonnie Heaton, a retired hairdresser, who worries that one day SpaceX will somehow seize her beloved home on Weems Street. “Well, that peace has kind of gone out the window.”

Lege Trend: Private Property Rights Meets Tort Reform Meets Drones.

California legislature passed a bill to protect property owners from drones filing within 350 feet above their property. Very pro-private property rights legislation.

This measure,  Senate Bill 142 , was vetoed by Governor Jerry Brown. The Governor is concerned that drone operators will be exposed to litigation.

Sacramento Bee

Courthouse News Service: Drone Regulations Grounded in California

Candidate for Railroad Commission, Eminent Domain & Pipelines. RRC Did only Bureaucratic Busy Work.

Dr. Mark Miller, the 2014 Libertarian nominee for Texas Railroad Commissioner, and announced his candidacy for Texas Railroad Commissioner in 2016. From his statement:

“Among them were appropriate regulations for wastewater wells that trigger earthquakes and eminent domain abuse by common carrier pipelines. Sadly, regulations promulgated by the Commission under Porter’s watch turned out to be nothing more than window-dressing, resulting in additional bureaucratic busy-work, but with no substantive positive effects on protecting the Texas public. Even more sadly, this appears to be the usual state of affairs at the most important of state agencies.”

PR Newswire  Miller 4 Texas

Club for Growth. Eminent Domain. Trump.

Club for Growth, the fiscal conservative group, put out a White Paper on Trump.

  • “Donald Trump is not a pro-growth conservative.
  • He has advocated for universal, government-run health care, for a massive new tax, and for the abuse of eminent domain so the government could forcibly buy up your property for a developer to build a shopping center,”
  • …the Club believes he [Trump] would not govern as president in accord with the pro-growth principles of limited taxation, free trade, less regulation, and lower taxes.” Soon, one or more candidates will need to make this argument.”

Washington Post | Chicago Tribune

Eminent Domain and the Border Wall

Connecting the dots, HotAir explains that to build a border wall, requires that land be acquired.  Acquiring land by a governmental entity,  lends itself to eminent domain when landowners aren’t willing to give up their land.

Eminent Domain for a border wall is being called:

  • more symbolic than substantive
  • serious limits on what a fence can do
  •  sharply declining returns on those fencing investments
  • costly
  • inefective

WTVC 9

Vista Regional Water Plan is the New Trans Texas Corridor

An Elgin community meeting about the Vista Regional Water Plan was laser focused on eminent domain. The citizen comments abou the Vista water pipleine to move water to San Antonio :

  • “The hyper growth pattern planned is similar to California’s”
  • “This meeting is about eminent domain. When plans began for the Trans-Texas Corridor, the eminent domain issues began.”
  • References to the Spanish company building the pipeline, like the Spanish company that was the focus of the Trans Texas Corridor
  •  water grab  StopWaterGrab.org‘

Elgin Courier