early voting happening now
Mood: hopeful
Posted on 2009-10-22 12:43:00
Tags: politics
Words: 70

Believe it or not, it's time for another election. This one is fairly boring, but there are as always some TX constitutional amendments on the ballot. One of particular interest is Proposition 11, which would forbid eminent domain (the state taking private property) solely for economic development. (vote For!)

Information:
League of Women Voters Guide (.pdf)
Austin American-Statesman endorsements

Early Voting locations and times (.pdf) - they're open until next Friday.

3 comments

Comment from abstractseaweed:
2009-10-22T18:20:15+00:00
Out of curiosity, what's your thought on #2? If I were voting I think I'd vote yes, but the Statesman editors disagree.

My thoughts: "Highest and best use" from a strictly economic/tax base perspective is not necessarily the best use of land from a holistic city planning perspective. Having residences near commercial property can be beneficial by reducing transportation demand, so it's short-sighted to penalize those homes with higher taxes. Furthermore, even if an individual property could be further economically developed, it doesn't mean that the market would support all such properties being developed in that way at the same time. Yet the taxes would be collected as if they were.

Comment from djedi:
2009-10-23T15:49:44+00:00
I think I agree with you, Seaweed.

Comment from abstractseaweed:
2009-10-23T17:38:30+00:00
Houston Chronicle also agrees with "yes". Since Houston has no zoning I imagine this would affect them more than other parts of the state.

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