EMINENT DOMAIN LAW

Looks like the impact of the atrocious Kelo decision on eminent domain may hit close to home here.

The village of Union Grove is offering "market value" for a farm house owned by a single mother on disability or implying it will just take the house and property for "economic development."

UNION GROVE — The fear of losing her home under eminent domain is almost too much to take for Angela Thomas.

She’s received letters from the state and the Village of Union Grove during the past two months regarding the village’s redevelopment effort and tax incremental district.

“It sounds like they can offer me fair market value, which is never going to replace what I have, or they can just take my house,” said Thomas, who bought a century-old farmhouse four years ago along Main Street. “… It was a really crappy way to be notified.”

Thomas, a single mother on disability, said she has poured her life savings into restoring the three-bedroom house.

“I have basically run out of money with the siding and gutters left to do,” said Thomas, who, along with dozens of other letter recipients, attended a recent public meeting regarding the ensuing revitalization project that brought about the letters.

“Now I feel like if I don’t finish my house I am definitely going to be one that they are targeting,” she said.

Thank the "living, breathing Constitution" advocates who think it's OK for the government to seize your property to put up condos or a strip mall or a big box outlet simply because it can produce more tax revenue. Shame on the USSC justices who thought this was good public policy and constitutional.

More from the JT article:

The revitalization plan is expected to address underutilized and blighted buildings, encourage consistent development and to establish building and zoning standards throughout the village. The plan has been coordinated with the state’s expected reconstruction of Highway 45 through Union Grove beginning in 2007.

“We need to keep the business district healthy downtown,” said Carol Knight, director of the Greater Union Grove Area Chamber of Commerce. “We got Highway 45 going right through our town, we need to make a good impression when folks come through and have businesses and service there that they need.”

What this translates to is this: greedy politicians who see the ability to confiscate more tax dollars from a developer, a condo association, businesses in a strip mall, etc., than they can from a private homeowner.

More greed from the PUBLIC sector. How much is enough in tax dollars?

Cross posted at Texas Hold 'Em Blogger.