Letter to the Editor: Dec. 19, 2007

STIGLICH

The California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act is the right vehicle to ensure eminent domain abuse ceases within the state of California. As for me, it’s got my vote!

Over the years, one incident after another has occurred where local government agencies have used eminent domain procedures in order to seize a citizen’s private property, only to turn it over to a private developer for commercial development with the sole purpose of increasing tax revenues. More often than not, property owners, unable to stand up to big government lawyers, end up losing their property and are left wondering how this could have happened in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Unfortunately, we’ve been hearing more and more about these abuses in the news lately. That’s why it’s critical voters rally support behind passage of the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act.

I recently spent a Saturday in front of the Redding Home Depot store collecting signatures on a petition to get the Act formally to the voters as a ballot measure. The petition drive was a complete success and this proposed constitutional amendment will now appear on the June 2008 ballot for voters to consider.

If passed by the voters, the Act will amend the state’s constitution to, among other things, 1) bar state and local governments from condemning or damaging private property for private uses; 2) prohibit deference to the government in property rights cases; 3) require the government to offer to the original owner of the condemned property the right to repurchase the property at the condemned price when the property is put to substantially different use than was publicly stated; 4) require award of attorney’s fee and costs if a property owner obtains a judgment for more than the amount offered by the government; 5) define “just compensation”; and 6) phase out existing rent controls.

Voters deserve the right to be heard on this very important issue. Let’s all pull together and vote to pass the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act in the June 2008 election.

Colonel Pete Stiglich, USAF (retired)

Candidate for State Assembly, District 2