Eminent Domain Report

The use of "government stimulus" spending to spur economic growth has been a point of heated political controversy for the past several years.  A proposal outlined by President Obama over the weekend involves spending $50 billion on the nation's transportation infrastructure, focusing on the aging highway system, rail lines, and airports. 

According to a September 7 Wall Street Journal article by Gary Fields, "Obama in Infrastructure Push,"

At a Labor Day rally in Milwaukee, Mr. Obama said the initiative would be part of a larger effort to fix 150,000 miles of roads, lay or rebuild 4,000 miles of railroad track and refurbish some 150 miles of airport runways.

Not surprisingly, the proposal is not without controversy.  Mr. Fields' article quotes an email from House Republican Leader John Boehner of Ohio as saying "If we've learned anything from the past 18 months, it's that we can't spend our way to prosperity."

Time will tell whether this proposal moves forward.  However, regardless of your personal political views, if you live in California (or anywhere else with substantial population centers), it's hard to escape the conclusion that our transportation infrastructure needs a pretty serious face lift. 

And, if the spending plan moves forward, some of that $50 billion will likely involve efforts to expand right of way corridors, a task which almost always requires the use of eminent domain.