SB 174: More Proof Republicans (and Some Dems!) Love Eminent Domain...

Irony of the morning: The Madville Times declares Bill Janklow and Steve Sibson the best Republicans in the state.

Granted, Sibby hears too many secular humanist monsters under the bed, and Janklow is a convicted felon, but when it comes to property rights, love 'em or hate 'em, these men are right.

Yesterday Janklow testified to a packed State Senate Transportation Committee hearing against SB 174, another sop from the State Legislature to big business and slap in the face to the South Dakota landowners who vote for those Republicans. SB 174 would speed up the eminent domain process for railroads. The bill specifies that any pending application, like the one DM&E has right now, will be sped through the system within thirty days of the effective date of the amendment.

In other words, the Legislature is pushing a law aimed specifically at helping their DM&E friends in this particular case.

As we see with the TransCanada pipeline and the Hyperion refinery, the deck is already stacked against individual landowners. Big corporations -- Big Oil, Big Rail, et al. -- have all the lawyers and friends in Pierre that money can buy. Is it really necessary to furhter weaken the leverage small farmers and ranchers and homeowners have to fight to keep their land?

A lot of Republicans think so: Senators Hansen, Abdallah, Dempster, Reps. Brunner, Dykstra, Kirkeby, Noem.... But Dems are on board too: Both of our District 8 Dems, Senator Sutton and Rep. Gassman, have joined GOP Rep. Russell Olson to support this little bonus for big business.

And disgustingly, farmers can't even count on the Farm Bureau to stick up for them. As Sibby points out, Mike Held of the Farm Bureau has lobbied for Big Rail on SB 174 and Big Oil on SB 138, the pipeline responsibility bill.

I still have enough conservative -- heck, forget conservative, call it classical liberalism -- left in me to know that property rights are a bedrock principle of American freedom. Too many people in Pierre on both sides of the aisle seem to think that property rights are only as good as the money you make with them. If you're just raising beans or sheep, or if you're just a working man who managed to buy a quiet little country lot to retire on, don't expect Pierre or any other elected official to stand up for you. But if you're a Canadian corporation moving fossil fuels through the state (remember, DM&E is Canadian Pacific now, and Wyoming coal is their big dream moneymaker), you'll get all the political favors Pierre can muster.

It takes Bill Janklow, who has nothing to lose from making big corporations mad, to stand up for South Dakotans' rights. It takes Steve Sibson, who drives me nuts with some of his fundamentalism, to remind his own party of the fundamentals of personal liberty. At least some Republicans are still fighting for the little guy.

So question for Russ, Dan, and Dave at tomorrow's big District 8 crackerbarrels: how many Canadians are registered to vote for you in November?

Cross-posted at KELOLand.com!