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<< Back to "Your Voice" Archive“YOUR VOICE”For Increased Restrictions on the Power of Eminent Domain The Power of Eminent Domain is certainly one of the important tools that a government needs to exercise in order to make our society more efficient and productive for all citizens. The public need that calls for the exercise of eminent domain is clearly one where all citizens gain. If an individual’s property is taken it must be for the good of the entire citizenry. Or, at the very least, it must be for the benefit of the larger majority of the people and certainly NOT for the gain of an individual, a corporation or a group of investors. Recent experience and the rulings of the US Supreme Court have shown that the exercise of Eminent Domain has shifted toward the benefit of “the few” at the expense of “the many.” It is inappropriate and unjust for this power to be used to create wealth in the private economy no matter how far the rationale for public benefit is stretched. The taking of land for the development of any private enterprise, shopping center, parking lot, housing development, or any other private venture is just plain wrong. Eminent Domain and the exercise of these powers is a State issue, not really a National issue except in the way that our national leaders reflect the needs and rights of all of the citizens. In West Virginia we are making legislative headway in controlling Eminent Domain for the citizens, but we have much more to do. It is essential to the rebuilding of trust in our public representatives that they all take a strong public stand for the protection of the historical nature and exercise of the power of Eminent Domain, and that they stand up and denounce any ventures that propose to commandeer an individual’s land for private gain. Vote for the Rights of the Citizens, Locally and Nationally. Write-In:
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