“Republican candidates for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general are calling for changes to state laws defining when a government can seize private property,” writes Michelle Washington in this morning’s Virginian-Pilot. Virginia Republicans have jumped on the issue in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month that expanded the definition of “public use” to include expansion of the tax base — giving local governments more latitude in seizing private property for economic development.
In a Tuesday news conference, Attorney General candidate Bob McDonnell said that “public use” should be better defined. “Whatever public use means, it will not include the primary purpose of economic development or tax enhancement.”
A word to the Democrats. Don’t let the Republicans dominate this issue. When local governments want to take land for redevelopment purposes, they’re not going after the mansion on the hill. They’re taking run-down property on land that some developer thinks he can make more valuable — in other words, they’re taking land from the poor and the powerless, supposedly a Democratic constituency.