You Folks Had Better Be Paying Attention To This

[Turfgrass]

We are seeing the evolution of a new standard for government seizure of private property. Its very simple. If some politician decides that your property would generate more tax revenue for government if it was owned by someone else, the politician can seize that property from you and turn it over to the government-preferred owner.

For our example of obscene government arrogance we turn our attention to Duncanville, Texas. Duncanville calls itself "A warm community of friends," and "A wonderful place to raise a family." Well, Duncanville may be a wonderful place to raise your family, just so long as some politician doesn't decide that the city could get more tax revenue if your home were to become a Costco.

Deborah Hodge has been living in her Duncanville home for 13 years. The Hodge property has a four bedroom house, a bar, pasture and swimming pool. It has been a family gathering place for over a decade. Just like the city motto says, "A wonderful place to raise your family."

A few months ago the city told Deborah to sell her property. They didn't ask her if she wanted to sell. They told her that she would sell. She would either sell, or they would just take it. The city, you see, wants a Costco store to be built on her land. The Costco would, after all, generate a lot more tax revenue than her little house and barn. So ... Duncanville is using its right of eminent domain to seize the property.

Now ... listen to this. These are the words of Duncanville city manager Kent Cagle. This is what Kent Cagle thinks about private property rights in America. Cagle told the Dallas Morning News "They don't have the option to say no to us. We have made it clear we want that property. The only thing that will be settled in court is how much we have to pay for it."

There is no freedom without property rights. What is it going to take to get Americans upset about this latest craze in local government revenue raising. You just identify the properties that could produce more taxes, seize those properties, and turn them over to developers.

 

[Turfgrass]

Here is the article for those of you who are interested. Lyle and Deborah Hodge are demanding 10 times what Duncanville is offering.

So with the prospect for beer and wine sales looking good in Saturday's local option election, the city is using its right of eminent domain to sue for the property.


Family fights price in eminent-domain case
Duncanville wants home for a Costco seen as important to tax base


10:16 AM CDT on Wednesday, September 10, 2003

By EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News

DUNCANVILLE ? When Deborah Hodge first heard about a proposal to increase sales tax revenue by bringing beer and wine sales to Duncanville, she wasn't too concerned.

The mother of five doesn't drink but thought easing the tax burden sounded like a good idea.

That was until she learned the city planned to locate its biggest revenue-builder ? a new Costco store expected to provide about 10 percent of the city's general-fund budget ? on top of her family's home.

Three months ago, city officials told the Hodges to sell the 5-acre property on Wintergreen Road or risk having it condemned.

"Everybody moves sooner or later ? that's not the end of the world," Ms. Hodge said. "But the circumstances of being told to move, nobody likes that."

Ms. Hodge and her husband, Lyle, a local chiropractor, have refused to sell, holding out for a price they say is worth 13 years of memories with their children.

But city officials say the price the family has set, $10 per square foot, is impossible to meet. Ms. Hodge the city offered her and her husband $1.01 per square foot, or $223,000 for the property, which she calls robbery.

"They're not interested in paying us for it; they're trying to steal it instead," Ms. Hodge said. "For $223,000, we can't even replace our home. We won't settle."


"They don't have the option to say no to us," said Kent Cagle, Duncanville's city manager. "We have made it clear we want that property. The only thing that will be settled in court is how much we have to pay for it."

The Dallas area is no stranger to eminent-domain battles. In McKinney, residents are fighting the proposed Airport Drive, a six-lane highway that would pass through homes. In North Dallas, the Roman Catholic diocese is trying to prevent construction of a public school on space it has reserved for a cemetery. And in Frisco, city officials are bargaining to acquire land for a soccer complex for the Dallas Burn.

The Hodge property in Duncanville, which includes a four-bedroom home, horse pasture, barn and swimming pool, has been the family's gathering place for birthdays, Christmases and Thanksgivings for more than a decade.

Through teary eyes, Ms. Hodge reminisced about some of the family's best times in the home ? the day her future son-in-law painted "Will you marry me?" on the barn roof and flew her daughter over it; the night a longhorn steer showed up on the front yard and the Hodge's four sons corralled it; the months on end Ms. Hodge spent in her gardens growing flowers for her daughter's wedding.

"We've spent good times and bad times here, but they were all important times for our family," she said. "I believe God gave us this house."

Duncanville officials argue the prospect of a Costco is a godsend for the rest of the city and its tax base. Mr. Cagle said the store would sit on 15 to 20 acres and bring in $1.9 million in annual property and sales tax revenue.

Mr. Cagle said the city originally offered the Hodges $640,000, or $3 per square foot, far more than the $110,000 the family paid for property 13 years ago. He said the Hodges declined, forcing the city to file suit about a month ago.

"We felt so strongly about that property that we were willing to pay more than the land was worth in order to be fair," Mr. Cagle said. "Turning it down was extraordinarily stupid."

Mr. Cagle said that when the Hodges rejected the city's offer, he had the property appraised and dropped the offer to $223,000. He said he was unaware that the Dallas Central Appraisal District recently placed the property value at almost $400,000.

The Hodges say they never received the $640,000 offer. Ms. Hodge said the family has come to terms with the fact that commercial development is planned for the area and that parking lots and highways will soon surround them. But they want to set their own terms for whom they sell to and how much they sell it for.

"Duncanville is trying to take this land from us before our investment has come to term," she said. "They want us to sell to them so they can be the investor, instead of letting us sell it ourselves."

Said Mr. Cagle: "Ms. Hodge has already cost her family a lot of money. She wants to play her own attorney, and she's not a very good one."

E-mail eramshaw@dallasnews.com.

 

[Redfish]

Your article merits warrant....by coincidence, I attended a luncheon today sponsored by a group of developers, engineers, builders, etc. who have formed an orginization in central Fl called Coalition for Prperty Rights (CPR). The guest speaker was US rep Tom Feeny who gave a great speech on exactly what your article refers to and is what the orginization is attempting to safeguard against. The Goverment is starting to get out of hand but only if the people let them..our whole constitution is based on property rights. Thanks for the post.

 

[Nosigar]

Hell, I thought that right to property was one of the reasons our kids are going all over the world and getting killed for.

As I get older I sometimes tend a bit to the libertarian view. Sh*t, government, get the hell out of our lives and just do what you're getting paid to do.

Damn liberals give these folks just too much power.

Some day soon you'll be taking a dump in your house and you'll get a citation for polluting, or some crap like that. This will allow your local "governmental commune" to expropriate the property in order to salvage the true value of the land".

Of course, this will first be legislated in California. . Babs will probably want everybody take a crap into a commercial incenerator, costing $18,000 retail, while she does it on her ample country estate so she can "fertilize the natural ground originally built by our ancestors the beavers, the rightful owners of the land" :shrug:

 

[raz19]

your first paragraph stated it ... whats it gonna take for americans to get upset and act .. not only this but the many other issues confronting freedoms in this day and time...

 

[yyz]

Every place in this country has "eminent-domain" laws......This could happen to anyone. Most often, it is enforced for highway expantions.