Property rights initiative reaches signature goal

Issue Date: November 28, 2007

CFBF Second Vice President Kenny Watkins speaks at a Sacramento news conference as supporters submit signatures to qualify the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act for the June ballot.

A coalition called Californians for Property Rights Protection has submitted more than 1 million signatures to qualify the California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act (CPOFPA) for the June 2008 ballot. This eminent domain reform measure will stop government from taking homes, family farms, small businesses and places of worship and giving the land to other private interests.

"We are submitting this ballot measure to prevent government from snatching private property from unwilling sellers to benefit wealthy and politically connected developers," said former state Sen. Jim Nielsen, chairman of the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights. "California law needs to be changed to protect all California property owners from eminent domain abuse."

The California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act is sponsored by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, the California Farm Bureau Federation and the California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights.

"Eminent domain abuse is putting California family farms and ranches at risk," said Kenny Watkins, Linden farmer and CFBF second vice president. "Farm Bureau supports this initiative because our membership expects us to protect family farms and ranches. Eminent domain is a real threat. We've seen it happen not far from here. Yolo County tried to seize the Conaway Ranch property a couple of years ago, to acquire its farmland and water rights. That really got our attention.

"The pressure to seize farmland has grown as city limits continue to expand. California law now lets government come after property to get the water rights, and to give that property to someone else. Our measure will prevent that. But it will allow continued use of eminent domain for true public projects, like roads, schools and reservoirs."

Watkins emphasized that the initiative will assure that farmland stays in private ownership and continues to produce the food and farm products all of California depends on.

Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association President Jon Coupal stressed that the ballot measure protects all California property owners. "Never again will government use eminent domain to destroy a person's home and livelihood," he said.

The ballot measure has been endorsed by the National Federation of Independent Business California (NFIBC), the Hispanic Chambers of Commerce (HCC), the Black Chamber of Commerce and a diverse coalition of taxpayer groups, faith-based groups and good-government organizations.

"Our members have worked hard to achieve their piece of the American dream," said HCC Chairman Ken Macias. "Hispanic business owners deserve private property protections. This initiative is the only measure that will appear on the June ballot that protects our members from eminent domain abuse."

NFIBC Executive Director John Kabateck pointed out that California's economy and jobs are dependent on the success of small business owners.

"California laws need to be changed to prohibit the kind of eminent domain abuse that allows government to profit by seizing homes and small businesses and giving it to politically connected developers," he said.

Since the U.S. Supreme Court's landmark Kelo v. New London case two years ago, California is not among the more than 40 states that have reformed their eminent domain laws. Today, public agencies continue to seize private property from unwilling sellers for private projects that benefit wealthy and politically connected developers.

According to independent analysis of the CPOFPA by the Institute for Justice, a non-profit organization that litigated the Kelo case, "California is one of the biggest abusers of eminent domain in the country. While CPOFPA would stop governments and redevelopment agencies from taking property for private uses, traditional uses of eminent domain for public use will not be affected."

The ballot measure does the following:

• Prohibits government from using eminent domain for private purposes, while allowing eminent domain to be used for legitimate public uses like building roads, schools, other government buildings and water projects.
• Provides procedural reforms and full compensation when property is seized for public purposes, including lifting the current $10,000 cap on reimbursable expenses associated with legal and other expenses for those property owners displaced by eminent domain.
• To protect the state's food supply and open space, prohibits public agencies from seizing family farms, ranches and other property in order to acquire water rights or acquire farmland to further enable urban sprawl.
• Prohibits government from setting the price at which property owners sell or lease their property, but does not affect tenants currently living in rent-regulated communities.

For more information regarding the CPOFPA measure, visit www.yesonpropertyrights.com.

Permission for use is granted, however, credit must be made to the California Farm Bureau Federation when reprinting this item. Top