Although it made no grand announcement, the California Chamber of Commerce's Board of Directors has voted to oppose Proposition 98, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association's eminent domain initiative on the June ballot.
Both sides of the 98 campaign have been rolling out endorsements lately, but the Cal Chamber's stance was the first genuine surprise. In opposing 98, the Chamber has joined forces with longime nemeses, such as labor unions, environmental organizations and social justice groups. The Chamber's willingness to hold hands with the California League of Conservation Voters, the State Building and Construction Trades Council, and the Western Center on Law and Poverty suggests that the Jarvis group and its allies — the California Farm Bureau Federation and property owners — either overreached or drafted the initiative poorly.
Proposition 98 would prohibit the taking of private property by eminent domain for economic development purposes. It would also outlaw rent control. An alternative written by local government organizations, Proposition 99, would prohibit the taking of single-family, owner-occupied houses for economic development purposes.
The Chamber cited Proposition 98's potential to limit water projects and economic growth. Opponents of the initiative have been arguing for months that the initiative's wording, either purposely or by accident, would prevent the use of eminent domain for water infrastructure projects. The Jarvis group and the Farm Bureau strongly deny the contention.
The Proposition 98 and 99 campaigns are starting to heat up. However, almost no one in the general public is paying attention, a situation that is unlikely to change in the 10 weeks before the June 3 election. Considering that we have the most compelling presidential election campaign in decades under way, an economy that's sinking fast, $4-a-gallon gasoline, and a war that is entering its sixth year, the argument over local government's occasional use of eminent domain to get a hotel or a new big-box almost seems quaint.
- Paul Shigley
