H990 - ONE BILLION DOLLARS to Take Private Property
By Eric Weaver ~ October 20th, 2008 @ 4:52 am
My opponent sponsored this bill. It is for the State of North Carolina to issue $1 Billion in general obligation bonds to buy land. Or to buy easements on land.
I have several problems with this:
- This would remove land from the tax rolls of the counties in which it is located.
- The state can buy an easement with this money, and not outright purchase title to this land. Considering all of the fraud and shenanigans with land deals that have transpired with politically connected people lately, I don’t trust this. I would bet that prominent Democrat Party members would have easements purchased, but still retain the use of and title to the land. Don’t bet against it!
- This is a horrible time to have the state incur new debt.
- This will saddle North Carolina taxpayers with two large bills: One bill to pay off the bond and the interest on the bond, and another bill to pay to manage and maintain the land.
- There is also some language that deals with incentives to business and with grants to a private corporation and some other programs that the state has no business being involved in.
The solution is to keep the land in the hands of private owners. This will not cost the state money, and private owners have an overall better record of maintaining their land (and buildings) than does the state.
Subscribe to blog feed.