August 28, 2005

Is Bredesen Unconcerned About Private Property Rights Post-Kelo?

In the wake of the Supreme Court's Kelo decision that greatly undermined private property rights in America, Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt created the Missouri Task Force on Eminent Domain to evaluate the state's eminent domain laws and making initial recommendations regarding suggested changes and improvements to the law - and the task force put up a website so the public could be involved in the task force's work. Government Technology magazine reports that the new site "allows for individuals to electronically submit testimony, provide recommendations and suggestions, and stay up to date on task force activities (and) also includes details about upcoming meetings."

In Tennessee, Gov. Phil Bredesen has created no such task force, nor issued any public statements criticizing the Kelo decision - which enables government to take private property for any reason it chooses, even solely to increase government tax revenues. A Google News search finds no news stories in which Bredesen even comments on Kelo, he hasn't written a word about it (or much of anything else for that matter) on his blog, and Bredesen has ignored requests for answers about his position on Kelo, as I reported here and here. In fact, Kelo is not mentioned even once anywhere on the entire state of Tennessee official website.

To be fair, Bredesen has been occupied with slashing sick people from the TennCare rolls and with the legislative ethics crisis and he has created a task force on legislative ethics. That task force has not created a website to solicit public input.

In a somewhat related bit of news, Knoxville-based Citizens for Home Rule has video of Knoxville City Council member Barbara Pelot admitting the city annexes property for the purpose of increasing city tax revenue, a violation of state law. Tennessee really needs a statewide version of Citizens for Home Rule. It also needs a governor that cares about private property rights.