Title: Trump, Ryan, and Walker Want to Seize Wisconsin Homes to Build a Foxconn Plant Source:
Reason URL Source:http://reason.com/archives/2018/06/ ... n-mt-pleasant-eminent-domain/1 Published:Jun 14, 2018 Author:Zach Weissmueller Post Date:2018-06-14 22:26:36 by hondo68 Keywords:USA, Blighted by Americans, gotta go Views:179 Comments:3
State and local officials are doling out $4.5 billion and 1,000 acres to lure the Taiwanese manufacturing giant.
Powerful forcesincluding Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker (R), the Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn, and President Donald Trumphave aligned, to turn more than 1,000 acres of Wisconsin farmland and family homes into an LCD screen manufacturing facility.
Reason visited the village of Mt. Pleasant to speak with homeowners facing the threat of eminent domain, and the local government officials responsible for acquiring the land on behalf of Foxconn, which is receiving $4.5 billion in subsidies and tax breaks. The project was sold to the public with a promise of 13,000 jobs and billions in additional tax revenue.
To assemble land for the project, local officials have already declared entire neighborhoods to be "blighted," with the goal of seizing homes with eminent domain, a legal term that typically describes the process of taking property from a private owner to facilitate a public use.
But what qualifies as a "public use?" In 2005, the Supreme Court ruled that the Connecticut town of New London was justified in seizing the land of homeowner Susette Kelo to hand it over to the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer on the grounds that it would spur economic development in an economically depressed area. The Pfizer project was never built, and the lot where Kelo's house once stood is empty and overgrown 13 years later. Public backlash led 43 states, including Wisconsin, to enact legislation protecting property owners from eminent domain for private projects.
With lawsuits planned, this project may test the strength of Wisconsin's post-Kelo law. Can public officials override the property rights of homeowners in pursuit of big development deals?
Poster Comment:
MTGA, Make Taiwan Great Again. Americans gotta go.
Whew, it STINKS -- ptly because it's a REPUBLICON president and REPUBLICON congressbastards pushing it!
This is deplorable. The local politicians are vultures without the slightest hint of humanity -- is that dollar signs in their lifeless eyes? Wanted to watch the whole thing, 9 min was all I could take.