February 2007

The Supreme Court of Hawaii heard arguments today in the appeal involving 2004’s property tax Charter Amendment from Kauai.  Details of the case and issue here.

Coverage of today’s arguments:

Past coverage of the appeal:

   
Continue Reading ▪ Supreme Court of Hawaii Hears Property Tax Arguments

Professor Paul Boudreaux at Land Use Prof Blog asks Should government land use science be easier to challenge?  He details a Utah proposal to allow a developer to introduce evidence demonstrating that the science supporting a zoning restriction is faulty, and compel binding arbitration if the government rejects the evidence.

Interesting concept.  One might think, under Euclidean norms, that the comprehensiveness of the process would produce a scientifically-valid outcome, but anyone who plays the land use game knows that is not necessarily the case, and the data used to support land use regulation often reminds me of a certain kind of science….Weird Science.

    
Continue Reading ▪ Land Use Regulation and “Science”

If the government takes your property for public use by eminent domain, it should make you whole, right?  After all, eminent domain is the government’s ability to force an unwilling owner to sell her property, so shouldn’t the government have to put the owner in as good a position as she was before the taking?