Eminent Domain is STEALING
October 10, 2008 11 Comments
Yes, Christopher Reed is entirely correct when he says “Eminent Domain is the government’s way of legally stealing from citizens.”
As I type, this theft is about to take place here in Southeast Iowa. In this case, you can literally call it HIGHWAY ROBBERY as IOWA DOT is forcing us to sell fifty acres of our farm for a bypass around the city of Fort Madison. This land has been in the family for almost a hundred years. It is land my husband and his father and his grandfather farmed. It is land where my husband was born.
So put aside “sentimentality” for a moment—forget the fact that three generations grew up, grew old, and died here, working hard as a family, facing failures and successes with dignity— let’s just look at what the government is doing on a material plane:
How it works– -FOR THE GOVERNMENT, that is— is the state of Iowa hires an independent appraiser to put a value on the property and makes us an offer based on that appraisal. If we refuse the first offer, we are given a second and then a third. If we have the nerve to refuse all three offers, the state has the power to put the property in condemnation.
Condemnation under Eminent Domain means that the state brings in six of the area’s supposedly average citizens (one of whom I have heard might be a realtor) to make an appraisal. The state makes us one last offer based on this appraisal. If we refuse this, the government will simply help itself to our land and give us nothing.
What has happened to us in this process so far?
We have been told rudely at a public information meeting that since the road is splitting the farm in half, we might like to just sell the whole place and move on.
We have received three expensive looking appraisal brochures with unflattering photos of the property, describing it as pasture land when in fact it is cropland. The DOT based its first offer on these appraisals and these appraisals used sales of recreational land or land that has remained fallow for ten years as comparison examples for what our land is worth. (In fairness, I need to mention that at any time we may hire our own appraiser for another assessment but we have been holding off on spending that kind of money unless we are forced to.)
We have been visited with an offer by a member of Iowa DOT who had all the charisma of a used car salesman, who lied to us about the possibility of damages, and who was not “empowered” to make any changes to the offer without running back to headquarters.
We have been offered less than 2900 an acre on the first go-round.
We currently rent this land to neighbors who farm it. This land provides one quarter of our yearly income which we will lose. We think we might also lose rent on more acreage because chopping the fields up into smaller pieces will make them less desirable to farm. Our only other source of income is a small monthly social security check. We had some retirement assets but they have been diminished by close to forty percent on paper in the last month.
So this is the power the government has? It can force you to sell at the price it offers or go without any compensation at all? It can deprive you of one quarter of your income with no damages for income lost? It can take retired folks on social security in tough economic times and push you around?
We have been looking and we have not yet been able to find comparable land to buy at the government’s price for which we could receive the same amount of rent. And we certainly would not want to invest in the stock market these days!
So we are waiting till the DOT salesman returns so we can formally refuse his first offer, see what his next one is, and head for the lawyer’s office.
It seems it is always a buyers’ market when the government is the “buyer.”
That is why Reed is correct: Yes, indeed, I guess you’d have to say that STEALING is “good enough for government work.”
Eminent Domain is another term for “government bully”. I’m glad that Reed sees this.
I am so sorry this stealing is happening to you and to others.
Thanks, your truly. Luckily we have no dependents and we know how to enjoy life without spending money.
And no matter what happens in our case, it seems the government will be generous enough to leave us a roof over our heads. (That, by the way, is more than it is allowing some people who live in the path of this particular highway bypass.) Thankfully also we will still have our garden plot for food.
It is interesting how the government will take your land that has been bought and paid for generations ago, but they will bail out people who bought a house they couldn’t afford.
What do you think the government will do with the extra land? Most likely sell it to private business to make profits. While there is a reason for roads to be improved, the bypass is another way to be the attempt by Americans to get what they want, where they want, and get there faster with little regard to the cost of others either financially or personally. Some would think eminent domain issues are local or state domains. But in cases such as building of lakes here in Iowa, the money comes from congress through grants. It is a big problem and Reed’s position would be good for all of us to know with our tax dollars being shipped out by the millions,…. billions,….. trillions! And such grants are often earmarked on other bills and quiely passed so many representatives vote to pass and really really debate the real need for such a lake or the local and battles to stop building lakes that destroy farmland and families.
Stand your ground as long as you can! The government thinks we will all roll over and be dead to our own property. Add in the greed of others who want their way and it is just a terrible situation! Greed is turning out to be a huge evil in our country- with many victims.
Building roads to travel on and building lakes for recreation when it looks like the average American may not have the money to buy fuel to use them, so stupid.
And of course, the main people who will benefit are the government and the private businesses which generally these days are consumed by greed and have lost their integrity.
And as far as Eminent Domain and bailouts go, the government puts the screws to those living within their means and enthusiastically rewards those who are financially inept and/or irresponsible.
Hold on a second Eminent Domain is stealing???
I work for the Iowa DOT, and I must tell you that we are as free and as fortunate and prosperous as we are because of our great road system.
A system that has taken tax payer money through property taxes and gas taxes to build farm to market and farm to rail roads. We have all sacrificed for the better of our agriculture and our economy in Iowa.
I do agree that life isnt fair and sometimes you get the bad end of the deal, but their is just no satisfying people!!
Either they are pissed off because of the gas tax, or they are pissed off because we can’t afford to fix there roads. Which are paid for by the gas tax
Either they are angry that no one has finished Hwy 20 and 30, or they piss and moan about Eminent Domain!
Along with many other Iowans, I support my family, and lie within my means because we have the money in our state budget to do so. Maybe you should consider telling both sides of this story next time
Sam, there are two sides as you make point. It is good to look at the positives to eminent domain. Repair the roads, build and maintain safe bridges. But lakes are different. The bypass situation described gives the readers an explanation as to what is really involved with the process of fair payment considering all the implications of the loss of the land.
I am not one of those citizens who is angry over the gas tax nor am I personally angry when roads go unrepaired unless there is something actually dangerous in the infrastructure. I for one believe we would benefit more from improved railroads than improved highways and that we should be focusing on the railroads.
I AM angry that the government is given the power to take property and income from its citizens. (However I would agree a highway project has the potential to be of more PRACTICAL benefit to more people –if that is what people want— than a lake project, so there is a distinction to be drawn here.)
In our personal experience we have been treated with rudeness and arrogance by Iowa DOT. Besides which, they have offered us about half what our land is worth and utimately we will be forced to sell at their price or they will take our land. If there is another name for this than stealing, I don’t know what it is.
If anybody out there really thinks it is ethical to take land and income from people who according to tax tables are already living below poverty level, then I don’t know what else to say.
It is a big problem that over half of U.S. citizens work for the government. OF COURSE these employees will have difficulty with objectivity when they examine the actions of an organization that gives them their paycheck and puts food on their table.
Good comment, neighhay. I also have had a bad experience when it comes to what price was given to me for my land with Hwy 20. PLUS, we did not get an overpass even though the road split our two farms that operate together. What used to be a quarter of a mile trip between farms has now become a seven mile excersion.