I'm not real happy with my alma mater about this:
MUNCIE -- If necessary, Ball State University will exercise its eminent domain power to seize a building housing a copy center/printing business on which it plans to build a $25-million hotel, conference center, restaurants and dormitory for hospitality and food management students.
After spending more than a year in private, "good faith" negotiations and executive sessions discussing how to proceed, the university's board of trustees on Wednesday authorized the university to file a court action against Chris Hiatt, an outspoken tax protester and government watchdog doing business as Hiatt Printing.
The trustees, a majority of whom are business people themselves, said during a meeting that they have been "incredibly patient," "fair" and "reasonable" in their efforts to "avoid this action."
Not that this use of eminent domain is outrageous constitutionally, especially given some of the outright theft of private property authorized by the Supreme Court in its Kelo decision. It's for a legitimate government use instead of some half-baked economic development scheme. But it's still the taking of someone's private property by a government entity, and government, by God, is supposed to protect our private property. Shame on them for having the gall to use words like "incredibly patient," "fair" and "reasonable" to justify resorting to legal force. And why does Chris Hiatt have to be described as an "outspoken tax protester and government watchdog"? He's a private citizen who is having to fight the government that should be on his side.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I can be as unreasonble in my rants against eminent domain as some of its supporters are in their use of it. But I like being unreasonable about it, so I guess everbody else will have to live with my rants.
