More on Stealing What Doesn't Belong to Them

John Hawkins has assembled some very good stories at Right Wing News on eminent domain issues across the country, including the case I discussed yesterday. Apparently, there's a war going on between state legislatures and local governments across the land to try and restrict eminent domain.

I'm not sure how much my own Indiana will restrict it. Certainly it's used here at least as much as it's used everywhere else. Local towns use it all the time for their own projects. When will it be used to bulldoze more houses to assist in commercial urban sprawl locally? I can't say, but I know a few areas (mine included) that feel that pressure daily. We all sit and wonder, will they come after our homes next? We just have to keep the pressure on the politicians and do our best.

On a positive note, one of our neighboring communities, Home Place, was able to fend off annexation from our town of Carmel. I applaud them. Sadly, our mayor will likely take it out on us in the form of higher taxes. Any justification, including the fact that it's Thursday, seems to be good enough for a local tax hike, so this may bring on a whopper of a property tax indulgence. They've already spent a lot on the assumption that Home Place would fall before the might of the Carmel town council, but it didn't. Of course, it's still a declining community, so it's not really won that much be keeping from being annexed. Still, it was a moral victory.

What can you think when your elected leaders are so openly dirty and the people don't seem interested in voting them out? I suppose there's the idea of moving, but I'm not leaving my home just because they suck. We'll just have to be loud and annoying, more annoying than they. I'm ready for that. Hope the legislature gets its act together in the meantime.