Today in Alabama, Republican Governor Bob Riley will sign into law, a bill that will stop the state and all counties and cities within the state from taking away people’s property to make more tax revenue.
The sponsor of the bill, Republican Senator Jack Biddle said the following after the bill passed,
“We don’t like anybody messing with our dogs, our guns, our hunting rights or trying to take property from us,”
Sounds like my kind of guy.
In contrast, there is this case in Oakland, California of the city taking the property of Alex Hahn (who was renting the facilities on said property to John Revelli and Tony Fung, owners of the Revelli Tires and Autohouse) and giving it to Sears.
The Sears Corporation wants to build their new ‘Sears Autocenter’ on the lot.
How nice of Oakland to knock out a small, privately owned business (as well as the jobs that go along with the business) so that it can be replaced by said business’ competition!
I’d tell you about the political affiliations of the Oakland City Council members, but their site is down right now. I am currently of the opinion that their site isn’t the only thing that needs some re-tooling.
But all one needs to do is look at which state went for whom in the presidential race last November to see the contrast here.
California – Kerry 54.4% – Bush 44.4%
Alabama – Kerry 37% – Bush 63%
All of which makes Howard Dean’s remarks,
“The president and his right-wing Supreme Court think it is ‘okay’ to have the government take your house if they feel like putting a hotel where your house is,”
Even more ridiculous.
Oregonians In Action, the same property-rights PAC that pushed and passed our Initiative 37 last November (the one that makes governments either pay for “takings” or rescind the rules that permit them), just filed the title for an ititiative to deny any government KELO rights in Oregon.
Interestingly, when “1,000 Friends of Oregon”, the group responsible for the formation of LUBA (Land Use Board of Appeals), a super-government panel that invariably supports “takings”, read the ballot title, they didn’t object to it’s language. That objection would have been the first step towards fighting the ballot initiative, which now, apparently won’t be fought, and therefore is a shoo-in, probably in a March Election next year.