Today the proponents of the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act announced that their initiative has been officially qualified for the June 2008 ballot! This is OUTSTANDING news as this measure, if passed, would provide REAL and MEANINGFUL protections for the rights of property owners against egregious "takings" by government agencies through the use of eminent domain proceedings.
If you are keeping crib notes, this measure is the GOOD Kelo reform measure, sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California Farm Bureau Federation, and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights.
This would be as opposed to the EVIL faux-reform measure, being promoted by the very people who current use eminent domain to the detriment of private property owners — local governments at the state redevelopment lobby. They are pushing their own measure, which actually strengthens their ability to subordinate the rights of property owners to the "master planning" of government.
694,354 valid signatures were needed to qualify for the ballot.