Jun 4, 2008 5:55 am US/Pacific
Proposition 99 Passes As Proposition 98 Fails
LOS ANGELES (AP) ―
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It was the rent control provision that fueled most of the opposition to the measure.
AP
Warned their houses could be bulldozed for a shopping mall, a car dealership or other private development, California voters overwhelming approved an initiative limiting government seizures.
Proposition 99 will ban governments from forcing most Californians to sell their homes for private development projects.
At the same time, voters on Tuesday defeated a competing initiative that would have forbidden government from seizing business, farms, churches and phased out rent control.
"I think for sure the enactment of 99 will drive the stake through the eminent domain fraud in California," said Tom Adams, board president of the California League of Conservation Voters, which backed the measure.
With 77 percent of precincts reporting, Proposition 99 had a 63 percent yes vote and Proposition 98 had a 60 percent no vote.
The passage of Proposition 99 comes three years after a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005, where the court found that a Connecticut redevelopment authority had the right to seize private property for hotels, shopping centers and other private developments.
The decision marked a departure from the traditional use of eminent domain, which is typically used when governments build roads, schools or other public projects.
While the Supreme Court ruling focused on home seizures, the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association and the California Farm Bureau placed a more sweeping response on the ballot with Proposition 98.
Their initiative would have phased out local rent control ordinances for apartments, duplexes and mobile home parks -- a provision that fueled most of the opposition and helped deliver a victory for the competing Proposition 99.
Although California voters rejected Proposition 98, supporters vowed Tuesday to lobby the state Legislature to enact broader protections for small businesses and those homeowners that might not be covered by Proposition 99.
"This issue will not go away," said Jon Coupal, president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association. "We'll consider all our options, including the ballot box and the Legislature and in the courtroom trying to help these people."
The narrower Proposition 99 will only slightly change existing law, prohibiting government from taking a single-family home or condominium for private redevelopment in places where an owner has lived for at least a year. It will continue to require government to pay property owners fair market value if their land were taken for roads, schools, hospitals and other public projects.
Supporters of both initiatives had raised millions in an attempt to sway public opinion. Proposition 98 supporters -- mostly landlords and property owners -- reported nearly $7.6 million in contributions as of May 30.
Meanwhile, the California League of Cities reported raising $11 million against Proposition 98 and for Proposition 99. That included $1.3 million in contributions from the California League of Conservation Voters, which raised $4.8 million of its own, according to filings with the Secretary of State's office.
In 2006, Californians defeated a property rights initiative known as Proposition 90 after critics said it would gut environmental protections and strip local governments of their power to pass local land-use ordinances.
(© 2010 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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