By Josh Mitchell/Informer Publisher

The government’s ability to take away private property from landowners would be greatly weakened if the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation is successful in reforming the state’s eminent domain laws.

Farm Bureau is currently circulating petitions statewide to obtain signatures of 90,000 registered voters to put the eminent domain issue on the ballot in November 2011. Currently in Mississippi, the government can take a landowner’s property for private development or business, and Farm Bureau believes that is a violation of Constitutional rights.

If the ballot measure passes, the government could only take private property for public uses such as roads, bridges and utilities, not private development. Those who want to sign the petition can do so at their local county Farm Bureau office, which is on Broad Street in Columbia.

Farm Bureau, a non-profit organization that represents farmers and landowners, has 207,000 family memberships statewide.

The government should not be allowed to “confiscate” landowners’ property and turn it over to a private developer to make a profit, said Doug Ervin, land program coordinator for the Mississippi Farm Bureau Federation. A landowner should not be at risk of losing his property because a wealthy person wants to build something, Ervin added. When the Nissan plant was built in Canton, eminent domain was used to take away mineral rights, said Ervin.

In the landmark Kelo vs. New London (Conn.) decision, the U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 upheld that the government could take away private property for economic development. The logic behind the controversial decision was that economic development benefits the public as a whole by increasing the tax base. The Kelo decision expanded the definition of “public use” and set off protests around the country, said Ervin. Since then, 43 states have enacted eminent domain reform to “prevent such a confiscation for private use,” said Ervin.

Last year, the Mississippi Legislature was close to passing eminent domain reform that would prohibit the taking of landowners’ property for private development. The House and Senate voted in favor of the legislation, but Gov. Haley Barbour vetoed the bill, saying such a law could hurt the state’s ability to attract business. The House overrode the governor’s veto, but the Senate did not have enough votes to override.

Ervin thinks the vast majority of state’s residents oppose government taking property for private gain. In fact, Ervin said a survey was done that shows 75-90 percent of voters oppose such an “abusive” use of eminent domain.

Farm Bureau has been working with the State Legislature the past four years trying to bring about eminent domain reform to no avail, so now it is time to take the matter to the people to vote on, said Ervin. Already there have been approximately 30,000 signatures out of the 90,000 needed to get the measure on the ballot, he said. The deadline to obtain the signatures is in October, but Ervin said Farm Bureau’s goal is to have them by Aug. 1.