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May 20, 2006
Schumer’s Way: Timothy P. Carney on big government serving big business
New York Sun covers Chuck Schumer's position on eminent domain. Hint: He's for it.:
Mr. Schumer’s group had a solution to this vexing problem. His report recommended “[m]aking greater use of public condemnation for assemblage,” explaining that “[t]he use of the powers of eminent domain eliminates a number of the barriers to assemblage by compelling property owners to sell and severing the leases of existing tenants.”Mr. Schumer’s paper specifically called on the government to go after “holdouts,” those pesky landowners who won’t sell, even when it is for the greater good (remember, we’re talking office buildings here, not schools or military bases).
The report exhorts the government to “[a]dopt the practice of removing office site holdouts via condemnation. Holdout condemnation would permit the completion of assemblage when 85% of a site is controlled and development plans are ready to proceed. This would eliminate the leverage of one or two small property owners who might refuse to sell, thereby allowing private developers to move ahead on a development.”
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Given his full-throated support of eminent domain for corporate gain, it is no surprise that Mr. Schumer reeled in $1.8 million from the real estate industry during his first term, according to the Center for Responsive Politics — more than any other Senate candidate that year.
Posted by amy at May 20, 2006 11:00 AM