Yes, the government took your property. But it wasn’t an exercise of its eminent domain authority. When you don’t pay your tax bills, the government can foreclose on your property, and sell it. Which it did. Inverse condemnation complaint dismissed.
Epice Corp. v. Land Reutilization Auth. of the City of St. Louis, No. 4:07CV00206
In What’s At Stake in Stop the Beach Renourishment, Lawprof D. Benjamin Barros posts a comprehensive summary of “judicial takings” case accepted for review by the US Supreme Court, Stop the Beachfront Renourishment, Inc. v. Florida Dep’t of Environmental Protection, No. 08-11 (cert. granted. June 15, 2009). Raises several interesting points and worth
I’ve received a few interesting comments and e-mails on an earlier post (“Why Hawaii Can’t Vote On Property Taxes”) about the Ohana Kauai property tax charter amendment and how it was declared unconstitutional by a 3-2 Hawaii Supreme Court.
Here’s one that I thought was worth moving from the below-the-fold comment section:
I know you’re
Faced with a budget shortfalls and declining revenue projections (and what level of government these days isn’t?), the Honolulu City Council voted today to raise property taxes and eliminate a property tax credit that would have softened the raise for some homeowners. See the reports here and here. It also voted to raise the
How often in an appellate opinion does the court use the term “glom?”
[The Appellee] gloms onto the “police power” aspect of the definition [of regulatory fees] in arguing that “Medeiros plainly concern[ed] the ‘police power’ of ‘criminal investigative services,’ not a user fee as suggested by [the state].”
No matter what you may
The ABA Section on State & Local Government has published my article “Because They Can: Judicially Excising the People from the Definition of “County” in the Hawaii Constitution” in the State & Local Government Law News (Spring 2008).
The article is a summary and analysis of County of Kauai ex rel. Nakazawa v.
California’s Flash Report posted my op-ed “Hawaii Government Sues Itself to Quash Property Tax Relief — And Wins” about the Kauai real property tax charter amendment appeal.
In August, by a3-2 vote, the Hawaii Supreme Court determined that the term “county” inarticle VIII, section 3 of the Hawaii Constitution means “countycouncils.” The majority held that only county councils may establish property tax policies, and that voters of the county have no power to do so directly by amending their county charter.
The
A “SLAPP suit” is a “strategic lawsuit against public participation,” and many states have statutes designed to thwart retaliatory lawsuits to protect the public’s willingness to exercise First Amendment rights. For example, California’s statute defines SLAPP suits as:
lawsuits brought primarily to chill the valid exercise of the constitutional rights of freedom of speech and
You can read the court’s Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law, and Order here.
I won’t be commenting on this decision since my colleagues Ken Kupchak, Mark Murakami and I are the attorneys for the property owner, but the statement of the family that owns the land is below.
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Circuit