This story becomes important because in the battle for property rights in California, the League of California Cities has played the role of the Greeks, laying seige to our efforts to reform the current system. Now, the League is trying to lure us into complacency with their own ‘Trojan Horse’ — a ballot measure that looks good until you really look inside of it…
After narrowly defeating Proposition 90, the eminent domain measure that appeared on last November’s ballot, the League of California Cities, an organization that represents the political interests of local government, has introduced an eminent domain measure that could appear on the June 2008 ballot.
While the League would like you to believe that they are responding to public outcry related to the U.S. Supreme Court’s controversial Kelo v. New London decision, a decision allowing government to profit by seizing private property from unwilling sellers and giving it to another, this is not their real motivation but it is the story they are telling their constituents – you and me.
The League introduced their ballot measure just weeks after the Flashreport reported that the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights have introduced a new eminent domain ballot measure that provides comprehensive Kelo-type property protections, without the regulatory taking provisions that the League demonized during the Prop. 90 campaign. The brilliance of this coalition’s strategy was not lost among those who practice the art of eminent domain or rather, abuse – the League and its partner in crime, the California Redevelopment Association.
With the news that private property rights advocates were moving on another ballot measure that appeals to business and farm organizations that opposed Prop 90, panic set in among the League’s members. But they are not to be out-smarted by those they profess to represent. The League introduced their own ballot measure, the “Homeowners and Private Property Protection Act.”
Whenever our elected leaders, whether state or local, introduce plans they claim will curb their political power or conduct (reapportionment and term limits come to mind), I am always leery and in the case of eminent domain reform, I have good reason.
For one, the title of their ballot measure is misleading – the “Homeowners AND Private Property Protection Act.” Their proposed measure provides homeowner protections in some limited circumstances, but does not prohibit cities or other public agencies from seizing small businesses, family farms or places of worship. So other than homes, as stated in its title, what other private property protections does it provide? I’m not sure.
Politically, the measure gives the appearance of eminent domain reform, but provides no substantive change to existing law. This will certainly please developers and other special interest groups opposed to eminent domain reform.
But what has not been reported so far is their measure has a “poison pill” provision. By reading the fine print you’ll find text that states that in the event that two eminent domain measures receive voter support, the measure that receives the greater number of “affirmative votes” prevails and “every provision of the other measure or measures shall be null and void.”
So, the League’s strategy is to introduce their own version of eminent domain reform (“Kelo-Light”) and raise millions of dollars to make sure their version gets more votes than the HJTA measure that truly curbs their power of eminent domain. Then, the League’s poison pill provision makes the voter approved HJTA version “null and void.” At the end of the day, they hope for a win-win scenario that gives voters the appearance of change, when essentially they have protected their power to seize businesses and family farms that pay for home mortgages, and our places of worship.
Will they get away with this? This is a good question for Governor Schwarzenegger who promised eminent domain reform last year when he announced his opposition to Prop 90 and our Republican State Legislators.
While the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association (HJTA) coalition will try to qualify their measure by gathering signatures, the League of Cities is asking the State Legislature to place their Constitutional Amendment on the ballot, the very body which has not passed Kelo reforms since the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision nearly two years ago. The League’s process requires a two-thirds vote of the State Legislature and they need Republican votes.
Only one eminent domain measure should come before voters in June of 2008 – HJTA’s “California Property Owners Protection Act.”
Will our Republican legislators stand with the property owners within their districts, or will they buckle under pressure by special interest groups? Will they be lured in by this Trojan Horse, like those brave, doomed warriors of ancient Troy?
I leave you with the warning uttered by the Priest Laocoon, to the Trojans, in Homer”s Odyssey…
"Trojans, trust not the horse. Whatever it be, I fear the Greeks, even when bringing gifts."
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