There are initiatives on the ballot in twelve states to strengthen property rights, including eight states with specific proposals to limit the governments’ eminent domain powers (Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oregon and South Carolina). Although many of us are frustrated by the candidates we have to choose from these days, I hope voters in the states where property rights are on the ballot get out and vote on this critical issue.
Here in Tennessee the issue of eminent domain is not on the ballot, but it is an issue that may become rather contentious as the city of Nashville moves to redevelop the land along the Cumberland River near downtown.
The Nashville Business Journal ran an article last week in which they examine the possibility of large tracks of land being taken away through the powers of eminent domain in the name of redevelopment.
As I told the reporter in this story, I hope that this will not be the case. Seizing land for developers to use to build condominiums is not the proper use of eminent domain. Let the developers use the free market to purchase the land that they need for their projects.
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