Greed disguised as "Eminent Domain"
Sep. 29th, 2004 04:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaHere's an issue I wish would get a lot of attention, but I'm not too optimistic.
Most Americans are willing to pay taxes if they know that this tax money is going to be used for good cause, to suit the public interest. Ideally, then, taxes are something we pay voluntarily to the government, whose authority is rooted in the consent of people to be governed, in return for things which will benefit us.
What we're seeing here, though, is what happens when a city is ruled by an entrenched elite who see tax revenue as something which government is inherently entitled to demand. Furthermore, the greed in operation here is sickeningly blatant -- wealthy developers wink and nudge at city officials about the nice tax payoff they can expect from a swanky resort, but, sigh, there are commoners in the way.
How, I wonder, can the developers reasonably expect their project to be a success if they do not have the support of the people who live in the town?
If the Supreme Court rules against the residents of Fort Trumbull, then no American citizen, anywhere, will be safe in the assumption that the scenic property they've purchased for their home and for their children is secure against greed disguised as "eminent domain." This is, in short, one of the most important issues we face today.
The Supreme Court agreed Tuesday to decide when local governments may seize people's homes and businesses against their will to make way for projects like shopping malls and hotel complexes that produce more tax revenue.
The court already has given governments broad power to take private property through eminent domain, provided the owner is given "just compensation." This often involves blighted neighborhoods residents are eager to leave. But in recent years more cities and towns have been accused of abusing their authority, razing nice homes to make way for parking lots for casinos and other tax-producing businesses.
... In the latest case, Susette Kelo and several other homeowners in a working-class neighborhood in New London, Conn., filed a lawsuit after city officials announced plans to bulldoze their homes to clear the way for a riverfront hotel, health club and offices. The residents refused to budge, arguing it was an unjustified taking of their property.
The Fifth Amendment [to the US Constitution] allows governments to take private property for "public use." The appeal turns on whether "public use" involves seizures not to revitalize slums or build new roads or schools, but to raze unblighted homes and businesses to bring in more money for a town.
"I'm not willing to give up what I have just because someone else can generate more taxes here," said homeowner Matthew Dery, whose family has lived in the New London neighborhood known as Fort Trumbull for more than 100 years.
from Court Takes on Question of Seizing Land
Most Americans are willing to pay taxes if they know that this tax money is going to be used for good cause, to suit the public interest. Ideally, then, taxes are something we pay voluntarily to the government, whose authority is rooted in the consent of people to be governed, in return for things which will benefit us.
What we're seeing here, though, is what happens when a city is ruled by an entrenched elite who see tax revenue as something which government is inherently entitled to demand. Furthermore, the greed in operation here is sickeningly blatant -- wealthy developers wink and nudge at city officials about the nice tax payoff they can expect from a swanky resort, but, sigh, there are commoners in the way.
How, I wonder, can the developers reasonably expect their project to be a success if they do not have the support of the people who live in the town?
If the Supreme Court rules against the residents of Fort Trumbull, then no American citizen, anywhere, will be safe in the assumption that the scenic property they've purchased for their home and for their children is secure against greed disguised as "eminent domain." This is, in short, one of the most important issues we face today.
