House bill will let cities give your home to big business
Imagine you live in Greensboro and you receive the following notice in
your mailbox:
"You are required to move within 90 days. If you remain in possession of
your property at that time, Federal Express will have you and your
belongings removed by the Sheriff."
Not in America, you say? If the General Assembly passes the Economic
Development Eminent Domain Act (H119), notices similar to this could start
going out across the state as early as this summer.
Sponsored by Rep. Ronnie Sutton (D-Robeson), this bill adds to the list of
reasons why cities and counties can seize private property through eminent
domain. The new law would allow local governments to condemn and take any
real estate "for economic development activities."
There are already nine reasons why local governments can seize your
property. That's nine too many, according to the Libertarian Party.
"It's bad enough that government can pave over your neighborhood for a new
highway," said Sean Haugh, State Chair of the Libertarian Party. "At
least under the current law, governments must claim some public purpose
for this action. But stealing property from people to just to hand it
over to favored businesses is a whole new level of corporate welfare."
Libertarians point out that similar laws have already been struck down in
other states. For example, last year the New Jersey Supreme Court stopped
Donald Trump from evicting people from their homes to expand his casino in
Atlantic City.
"This is the logical next step in North Carolina's corporate giveaway
program," said Haugh. "Taxpayers already pay to lure companies here. We
pay again for the roads and utilities they need to operate. Then we pay
to train their employees, and on top of it all, we keep paying taxes while
these corporations are given exemptions. We might as well rename Hertford
County as 'Nucor County' while we're at it."
The Libertarian Party urged legislators to abolish corporate incentives,
not expand them. "We believe that the people are a much better judge than
government of what businesses deserve support," said Haugh. "Our
government is supposed to a democracy that protects individual rights, not
some misguided 'public-private partnership.' There are words to describe
such a form of government, but 'democracy' isn't one of them."
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