Saturday, May 17, 2008

Tyler

Posted on Friday, May 09, 2008

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East Texas Officials Propose Limiting Eminent Domain’s Reach

(Staff Photo By Herb Nygren Jr.)

PROTECTING LAND: Republican Party of Texas Chairwoman Tina Benkiser talks about backing an amendment to the Texas Constitution to protect private property rights at a Tyler press conference at Republican headquarters on Thursday. State Sen. Kevin Eltife listens in the back.

By ROY MAYNARD
Staff Writer

The threat to private property rights posed by a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision is serious enough to warrant a change in the Texas Constitution, Texas Republican Party Chair Tina Benkiser said in a Thursday press conference.

The Kelo decision in 2005 allowed a city in Connecticut to take private property for the purpose of economic development, Ms. Benkiser noted, and thereby expanded the government’s eminent domain powers.

“One of the cornerstones of freedom in America has been bulldozed by the U.S. Supreme Court, and Texans can help rebuild it by passing a constitutional amendment to protect private property in Texas,” she said.

Speaking at the Smith County Republican Party Headquarters, flanked by state Sen. Kevin Eltife and state Rep. Leo Berman, Ms. Benkiser said the U.S. Constitution originally restricted the government’s ability to confiscate private property to instances of specific public uses.

“Over the years, the courts have so perverted this restriction that it is unrecognizable,” she said. “In essence, the courts have said that an American has no right to own property but only a privilege to pay for its use until the government takes it away on a whim.”

She cited a case in Rowlett from 2003, in which the city wanted a home that had been in Larry Raney’s family since 1929.

“Claiming that the land was needed for a park, the city’s own master plan showed the property as a future upscale residential development,” Ms. Benkiser said. “After Raney was forced to sell, the city bulldozed his family home and left the property vacant, apparently finding no need for a park or other public use after all.”

Eminent domain must be restricted to public use, she said.

“Everyone knows what public use means — roads, schools, and libraries; not casinos, shopping malls and condos,” she said. “Now that the U.S. Constitution no longer protects people’s right to own property, Texas needs to do so. With its tradition of valuing individualism and protecting individual rights, the Texas Legislature needs to restrict government’s power to condemn private property and to protect its citizens’ right to own property and achieve the American dream.”

The Legislature has passed some restrictions on eminent domain, she acknowledges.

“But it was not enough,” Ms. Benkiser said. “In closing the front door, it left the backdoor wide open for abuse. The legislation included a long list of exceptions to the restrictions it placed on government, a list you could drive a bulldozer through.”

In 2006, she adds, voters in the Republican primary election passed a ballot initiative calling for such an amendment.

On Thursday, Eltife said he “wholeheartedly” endorses a constitutional amendment, but he went even further.

“The biggest thing we could do to protect property rights would be to defeat the Trans-Texas Corridor,” he said, referring to Gov. Rick Perry’s vision for a superhighway spanning the state. “We need to stop it in its tracks.”

Berman agreed.

“I’ve said I’ll do my best to defeat it in the next session,” he said.

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