Real Steal Posing As The Real Deal
by Timothy Sandefur
The Orange County Register has this editorial on the recent attempt by the California League of Cities to attack the genuine eminent domain reform initiative in California.
The same organizations supporting ACA8 are claiming that the CPOFPA would forbid the use of eminent domain to create water-storage facilities. This is a cheap scare tactic, designed in part to convince Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – who is committed to rebuilding the state's water infrastructure – to oppose it.
"The California Property Owners and Farmland Protection Act preserves existing legitimate uses of eminent domain, including the provision of public utilities such as water," explains Timothy Sandefur, an attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation in Sacramento. "What the Act would prohibit is the seizure of private water rights, or the mere expropriation of private water companies. Such seizures have become unfortunately common, thanks to government's manipulation of virtually every aspect of the economy in California."
Here's Sacramento deception at its worst – the promotion of an initiative designed to accomplish the very opposite of what its supporters claim, and phony claims about another initiative designed to muddy the waters and scare people into opposing it.