On Tuesday, the House Select Committee on Eminent Domain Powers
wrapped up their work before the short session. Normally, this
would mean the committee’s work is done, but the committee has
indicated that it may continue working on the issues.
Let’s hope they do continue working on eminent domain reform, because as of now they have wasted about 4 months getting nowhere.
Recent
accounts in the media and some committee members are saying how the
committee has protected us against economic development takings
(Kelo-type takings).
This is what the committee did. In
March, they introduced a modest draft bill that would have provided
better compensation to eminent domain victims. At this March
meeting, almost everyone in the committee thought the bill was a decent
start.
This bill wasn’t nearly enough, but at least it did so
something. This past Tuesday, magically, the draft bill was
abandoned and replaced with what amounts to someone going to the copy
machine and copying existing law.
The compensation issues now
aren’t addressed. The bill simply repeals local acts (bills
passed by the legislature for local communities) that allow economic
development takings–this same provision already was in the previous
draft bill. The only thing added is language that repeals a
buried provision in the law that nobody knew about until just recently,
including the legislative research staff. It would allow economic
development takings in conjunction with municipal bonds.
The fact
that they repealed a buried provision proves the point that we need an
express prohibition across the board to eliminate economic development
takings. Who knows when the next buried provision will turn up?
The
committee decided to study the issues further. Who is going
to decide what issues need to be studied further? Certainly the
legislators debated what should be studied in detail. Nope.
They said the research staff can decide behind closed doors.
Enough about campaign finance reform, how about open government first?
Tuesday
was a bad day for property rights in NC. The good news is that
better property rights protections is a bipartisan issue that basically
everyone supports except city council members. I expect when the
short session starts, true leaders will step up and try to do the right
thing, no matter how much of a farce this committee has been so far.
