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Prop. 98 Threatens ALL Public Works Projects Including Schools, Roads, Highways, and Water Projects |
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Prop. 98 is a Disaster for Infrastructure Projects. Prop. 98 would make major changes to laws governing acquisition of property, including the use of eminent domain and regulation of land use. These changes will add years of delay and increase the cost of acquiring property for countless public works projects – including schools, roads, water systems and airports. Here’s how:
- Public agencies will experience years of delay which = added costs. Prop. 98 changes the law to let a landowner accept payment from the public agency for their property and still challenge whether the public agency has a right to take the property. Public agencies will face loss of the payment of just compensation for the property and still face years of litigation and costs over the actual use. This will delay already needed projects further.
- All property acquisitions will be more expensive which = less $ for projects. Prop. 98 changes the definition of “just compensation” to include the property owner's attorneys fees if the jury awards even $1 more than the public agency's offer and other factors not currently included. The new definition will lead to years of litigation over its meaning, meaning fewer settled cases, more trials and lengthier process. Higher property acquisition costs means less money available for actual project construction.
- Balance of power shifts to courts in trials which = more delay and costs. Prop. 98 will add years to eminent domain cases because it eliminates the strong presumption that is given under current law to a finding by a public agency that it needs to exercise the power of eminent domain to construct a public works project and allow the court to consider more factors. These changes will make eminent domain trials more complex, longer, more expensive and more risky for the condemning agency.
Increases Liability Over Public Works Construction and Expansion Projects for New Development. Unrelated to eminent domain, Prop 98 prohibits a public agency from regulating the use of private property if the regulation “transfers an economic benefit” from the regulated property owner to another private property owner. Nearly all traditional land use regulations economically benefit some properties while burdening others. Read literally, this provision would make unconstitutional virtually all regulation of land use. So, neighbors who didn’t want to have a project built near their homes could sue and stop the project and its related public works because they would transfer an economic benefit from them (by lowering property values) to the property owners benefited by the project. |
