The California Alliance to Protect Private Property Rights feels your pain. You’ve been upset about eminent domain abuse—when cities take land from the little guys and pass it to developers of chain stores, car dealerships, and golf courses—haven’t you? It’s so un-American. Well, the Alliance sympathizes, and it wants to channel your feelings into… opening up nature preserves and greenbelts to developers.
Up close, the “Alliance” doesn’t look like much an alliance. It looks more like a public relations firm. The man running the show, Marko Mlikotin, might be on Wal-Mart’s payroll. He was spotted recently drumming up community support for two Wal-Mart supercenters in Chico, Calif. But public relations is a tough job, and he’s having a rough go at it. Reporter Tom Gascoyne writes, “When I asked him questions, he would say, ‘I’m not sure,’ or ‘Don’t quote me.'”
Anyway, “Marko the Mysterious” just sent out a press release trumpeting a recent survey. The pollster is the Public Opinion Strategies, a Republican firm which says, “As our roots are in political campaign management, our research is focused on producing information….” Doesn’t sound so objective.
You can guess the poll results: People don’t like eminent domain abuse. They would support a law to protect homeowners. But the survey didn’t differentiate between the private property rights of homeowners and those of Wal-Mart. And what people weren’t asked about is how much they value open space and greenbelts and nature preserves. People don’t want a law like Prop 90, which citizens smartly defeated in November, because it would have crippled environmental regulation and cost the states billions of dollars. A “pay-or-waive scheme,” Prop 90 would have required the government to compensate landowners for new regulations that devalue their property, or waive the regulations altogether. (In Oregon, which has pay-or-waive, property owners in three months last summer filed more than $5 billion in claims).
As far as I can tell, no news agencies have picked up the survey, which means folks are onto Marko and his “alliance.” But the point is, they’re back. Special interests behind this “alliance” are drumming up support for another Prop 90. Get ready.
