The biggest single exercise of forcible eminent domain in the history of the state, and possibly the biggest in the history of the nation."
Candidate For Attorney General Rips Corridor And Concentration
9/21/06
By David Bowser
Livestock Weekly
Copyright 2006
PAMPA, Texas — David Van Os, Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General, is well along in his campaign tour to visit each of the state’s 254 counties, but his major issue, the Trans-Texas Corridor, does not resonate especially well with West Texas.
The Trans-Texas Corridor, a toll road running through East Texas and Central Texas, is a superhighway that will eat up about 600,000 acres, much of it taken over through the government's power of eminent domain. It will be run by a corporation in Spain, which can lease land along the right-of-way to private interests for truck stops, shops and restaurants.
While concerns over the toll road and its land acquisition policies are far from West Texas, Van Os said it's a matter of private property rights and could set a precedent for future use of the state's power of eminent domain.
"Even if you're not in the path right now," Van Os warned, "it is the first leg of a planned spider web of these giant toll roads that will go out all over the state."
Van Os, a San Antonio lawyer, said the Trans-Texas Corridor is the biggest single exercise of forcible eminent domain in the history of the state, and possibly the biggest in the history of the nation.
"I believe that if it goes through as it's planned, it will be a green light so huge that no hare-brained scheme that involves forcible eminent domain will ever be considered out of bounds," he said.
Van Os said that under state law, the Texas Department of Transportation, once it has filed suit against a landowner during the eminent domain process, can take possession of the land even before the landowner can reply to the lawsuit.
Van Os said that raises alarm bells in his mind concerning due process of law.
"That is just atrocious," Van Os said. "This thing is being done for greed, for the greed of a bunch of hogs swarming to the trough who want this thing to be built so they can make billions of dollars off of it. It is being rammed down people's throats in an eruption of governmental arrogance."
He said dozens of county commissioners’ courts through the middle of the state have adopted resolutions in opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor.
"This is giving away Texas land," Van Os said, "to foreign corporations."
Van Os said a provision in the state Constitution prohibits the appropriation of public monies for private profit.
"It's barely been winked at for the last 20 years while the concept of public-private partnership has been growing so much in governmental policymaking," Van Os charged. "It's not really being enforced today. That's why I think the Trans-Texas Corridor is wrong."
While his campaign crowds have been small in this part of the country (only three people turned out to hear him in Pampa, including a newspaper reporter), a message that seems to attract more attention concerns near monopolies in the insurance and meatpacking industries.
Texas, he said, was the second political jurisdiction in the history of the world to enact an antitrust law.
"That was a full decade before the U.S. Congress enacted the federal anti-trust act, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1896," Van Os said.
The state's first anti-trust law in the 1880s was drafted by then attorney general and later the first native-born Governor of Texas, James Stephen Hogg.
"Jim Hogg, as attorney general, wrote the anti-trust law and sent it to the Legislature and asked them to pass it so he could protect the people from the railroad barons," Van Os said.
After it was passed, Hogg took the railroads to court and won the first anti-trust lawsuit against a railroad.
"When Jim Hogg, on behalf of the people of Texas, whipped the railroad barons, that set a standard for the whole rest of the country in dealing with the railroad monopolies," Van Os said. "Here in Texas, we do that kind of thing. We stand up for the opportunity of the individual and the independent business owner for a fair chance."
The Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 26, said monopolies are contrary to free government and shall never be allowed, he said.
"They didn't put an asterisk there that said except in the case of big insurance companies," Van Os added.
The health insurance industry is now in the hands of about five big parent corporations, he said.
"Here in Texas, we're paying the highest premiums for homeowners insurance of anybody in the country," Van Os said.
The top four major meatpacking companies now account for the slaughter of about 85 percent of the cattle in the nation.
"It is a fact of history, a fact of economics, it's a fact of life that when too much economic power gets concentrated into too few hands it inevitably results in the exercise of monopoly power and monopoly control," Van Os said. "The independent business owner who is trying to make a living and contribute to the economy gets squeezed out."
The attorney general of Texas has the tools of office to fight back against runaway corporate monopolies on behalf of independent ranchers, he said.
"We've got strong anti-trust laws on our books," Van Os said. "We've got strong consumer laws. We've got anti-price gouging laws. Those laws don't need to be reinvented. They're on our books."
He said they need to be enforced.
“The attorney general of our state is uniquely charged with the responsibility and given the tools of office to level the playing fields for all the people to enforce the rule of law impartially.”
© 2006 Livestock Weekly: www.livestockweekly.com
To search TTC News Archives clickHERE
To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog clickHERE
9/21/06
By David Bowser
Livestock Weekly
Copyright 2006
PAMPA, Texas — David Van Os, Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General, is well along in his campaign tour to visit each of the state’s 254 counties, but his major issue, the Trans-Texas Corridor, does not resonate especially well with West Texas.
The Trans-Texas Corridor, a toll road running through East Texas and Central Texas, is a superhighway that will eat up about 600,000 acres, much of it taken over through the government's power of eminent domain. It will be run by a corporation in Spain, which can lease land along the right-of-way to private interests for truck stops, shops and restaurants.
While concerns over the toll road and its land acquisition policies are far from West Texas, Van Os said it's a matter of private property rights and could set a precedent for future use of the state's power of eminent domain.
"Even if you're not in the path right now," Van Os warned, "it is the first leg of a planned spider web of these giant toll roads that will go out all over the state."
Van Os, a San Antonio lawyer, said the Trans-Texas Corridor is the biggest single exercise of forcible eminent domain in the history of the state, and possibly the biggest in the history of the nation.
"I believe that if it goes through as it's planned, it will be a green light so huge that no hare-brained scheme that involves forcible eminent domain will ever be considered out of bounds," he said.
Van Os said that under state law, the Texas Department of Transportation, once it has filed suit against a landowner during the eminent domain process, can take possession of the land even before the landowner can reply to the lawsuit.
Van Os said that raises alarm bells in his mind concerning due process of law.
"That is just atrocious," Van Os said. "This thing is being done for greed, for the greed of a bunch of hogs swarming to the trough who want this thing to be built so they can make billions of dollars off of it. It is being rammed down people's throats in an eruption of governmental arrogance."
He said dozens of county commissioners’ courts through the middle of the state have adopted resolutions in opposition to the Trans-Texas Corridor.
"This is giving away Texas land," Van Os said, "to foreign corporations."
Van Os said a provision in the state Constitution prohibits the appropriation of public monies for private profit.
"It's barely been winked at for the last 20 years while the concept of public-private partnership has been growing so much in governmental policymaking," Van Os charged. "It's not really being enforced today. That's why I think the Trans-Texas Corridor is wrong."
While his campaign crowds have been small in this part of the country (only three people turned out to hear him in Pampa, including a newspaper reporter), a message that seems to attract more attention concerns near monopolies in the insurance and meatpacking industries.
Texas, he said, was the second political jurisdiction in the history of the world to enact an antitrust law.
"That was a full decade before the U.S. Congress enacted the federal anti-trust act, the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1896," Van Os said.
The state's first anti-trust law in the 1880s was drafted by then attorney general and later the first native-born Governor of Texas, James Stephen Hogg.
"Jim Hogg, as attorney general, wrote the anti-trust law and sent it to the Legislature and asked them to pass it so he could protect the people from the railroad barons," Van Os said.
After it was passed, Hogg took the railroads to court and won the first anti-trust lawsuit against a railroad.
"When Jim Hogg, on behalf of the people of Texas, whipped the railroad barons, that set a standard for the whole rest of the country in dealing with the railroad monopolies," Van Os said. "Here in Texas, we do that kind of thing. We stand up for the opportunity of the individual and the independent business owner for a fair chance."
The Texas Constitution, Article 1, Section 26, said monopolies are contrary to free government and shall never be allowed, he said.
"They didn't put an asterisk there that said except in the case of big insurance companies," Van Os added.
The health insurance industry is now in the hands of about five big parent corporations, he said.
"Here in Texas, we're paying the highest premiums for homeowners insurance of anybody in the country," Van Os said.
The top four major meatpacking companies now account for the slaughter of about 85 percent of the cattle in the nation.
"It is a fact of history, a fact of economics, it's a fact of life that when too much economic power gets concentrated into too few hands it inevitably results in the exercise of monopoly power and monopoly control," Van Os said. "The independent business owner who is trying to make a living and contribute to the economy gets squeezed out."
The attorney general of Texas has the tools of office to fight back against runaway corporate monopolies on behalf of independent ranchers, he said.
"We've got strong anti-trust laws on our books," Van Os said. "We've got strong consumer laws. We've got anti-price gouging laws. Those laws don't need to be reinvented. They're on our books."
He said they need to be enforced.
“The attorney general of our state is uniquely charged with the responsibility and given the tools of office to level the playing fields for all the people to enforce the rule of law impartially.”
© 2006 Livestock Weekly:
To search TTC News Archives click
To view the Trans-Texas Corridor Blog click
posted by Porkus Maximus Tex: at Thursday, September 21, 2006
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