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Farm Bureau launches Eminent Domain Reform petition drive in Mississipppi

Farm Bureau launches Eminent Domain Reform petition drive

After several attempts to get an eminent domain reform bill passed in the legislature, the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation (MFBF) is now taking the issue to the people of Mississippi.

“For three years, Farm Bureau has urged legislators to protect homeowners and landowners from confiscation of their private property by eminent domain, but to no avail,” said MFBF President David Waide. “The 2009 Legislature passed H.B. 803, which prohibited the taking of private property under the guise of economic development for private development or business. Both House and Senate passed the bill, but the Governor vetoed it.”

Now, Farm Bureau has launched a petition drive to put this initiative on the November 2011 ballot. If this initiative passes, it will greatly discourage government entities from taking private property for economic development purposes by prohibiting its use for those purposes for ten years.

Waide urges citizens to sign the petition. “Anyone can go to a county Farm Bureau office and sign the petition or go to the SavingMyLand Web site (http://www.savingmyland.org), print out a petition and sign it,” he said. “There is also a petition in the latest edition of Mississippi Farm Country magazine.”

In 2005, the U.S. Supreme Court held in a 5-4 decision in Kelo v. City of New London that a Connecticut city could take away people’s homes and turn the property over to a private party to develop the property for its own profit. The Court justified this result because the increased tax revenue on the developed property would benefit the public and the use of the property was, therefore, a public use.

Farm Bureau and many others disagree with this decision. “Just because a big company or a developer has the wealth to build a hotel or office building on the property that will generate more revenue does not justify the government’s taking the property from the owner and turning it over to a wealthier party,” Waide said. “Constitutional rights should not be determined by financial standards, or favor the wealthy over others.”

For more information about this initiative or to sign the petition, visit your county Farm Bureau office, go to http://www.savingmyland.org, or sign the petition in the March edition of Mississippi Farm Country.

Farm Bureau Press Release
3/18/10

Posted March 18, 2010 - 6:06 am

5 Comments:

Is this an effort by FB to deflect some of the bad pub from the animal protection bill?

Posted by db-mo on 03-18-2010 at 09:38 AM [link]

This is a great idea for protection against a developer(with deep pockets and lots of political sway) take over of private property. By requiring a 10 year haitis, it makes the eminent domain less attractive. We need to get behind this effort much as we did for getting the photo voter ID on the ballot. Let the people vote on this instead of allowing the veto to stand.

Posted by catty on 03-18-2010 at 10:05 AM [link]

At this point I question anything that Farm Bureau is behind. I question the company, and it’s management, as well as their ulterior motives. You can bet, that they are not doing it for the good of the citizens of Mississippi, but rather for their bottom line at some point.
I don’t agree with all aspects of eminent domain, having had some property seized by same, but I sure as hell have a bigger problem with a company that used it’s resources and political sway to be used against innocent animals. If they’ll do it to animals, they sure as hell wouldn’t hesitate to do it against people using the same resources and political sway.

The veto should stand!

Posted by Hammer3 on 03-18-2010 at 12:07 PM [link]

If you agree that limiting ED to legitimate public purposes is a good idea, why should you care who’s helping get petitions signed? Property rights generally benefit everyone, so you have to figure they’ll benefit folks you don’t like. And so you share an interest with them.

There’s just no reason to not work together on common goals; you’ll have plenty of time left over to fight about other stuff. If we can’t figure that one out, we’ll never get anything done.

Posted by Elwood P Dowd on 03-18-2010 at 09:16 PM [link]

Elwood, the fact is I do care who is helping to get the petitions signed, and Farm Bureau is why I am questioning it. Their actions are suspect, just like Obama’s on health care, and I wouldn’t work with him on common goals either.

Posted by Hammer3 on 03-19-2010 at 07:10 AM [link]

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