Dakota Beacon

'America is great because she is good. If America ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.' - Alexis de Tocqueville

Stealing is wrong. Our mothers told us all this when we were three years old. But with a lot of us the lesson never took. It is easy for some to rationalize their way into a life of robbery and never look back at the damage they’ve caused to their fellow men, their community, their families and certainly to themselves. Theft is made easy for some when “authorities” have sanctioned it. We have seen this many times over in the eminent domain abuses – cases like Kelo (and myself, for that matter). This is how Kelo was rationalized: the Kelo house and other similar homes provide a smaller income in terms of property taxes than the proposed development will when that happens. So it is proper for us to steal what belongs to the Kelo’s in order to make more money for the rest of the community, right? It’s in everyone’s “best interests” (except the Kelo’s, who don’t count).

The City of Grand Forks tore a page from the Book of Kelo a couple of years ago when they decided they would just steal the public’s park and sell it at a discount to a developer. No harm, no foul, right? Well, wrong. The fact of that matter was that while the flood had left in its wake a vacant spot in a downtown block in 1997, it also swept away the only downtown park, Central Park. That area is now a flood control area, like the “greenway”. It’s not a park. It’s barely even accessible. It’s not patrol-able by law enforcement. Arbor Park supplied a need for people who work and especially who live downtown. A tree-shaded, flower-bordered little piece of green where you could recharge, read a book, have your lunch or coffee. It’s gone, now, thanks to “development”. Undoubtedly the big complaint of the few who may one day inhabit the building will be that there is nothing green in sight. No trees anywhere, or flowers. Or grass or shade. Just concrete and bricks. Oh, well. That’s gone.

Grand Forks has for decades pursued a policy of driving private owners out of modest neighborhoods, especially those near downtown. They have herded people increasingly into multiple out-of-state-owned buildings. Fewer people own homes. Our owner-to-renter ratio is horrible. Owner residents are well in the minority here and the trend is getting worse.

Why do I say “worse”? What, after all, is wrong with everyone renting and no one owning? The difference is that if you don’t own your home, your farm, your business, you have no real stake in a community. It matters little to you whether it improves or declines. This is what the City “Fathers” want, though – a population which will not take issue with their plans for them. After the 1997 flood we saw what should have been easily predicted – that those with a stake or an investment stayed, those without left for dryer pastures. Why wouldn’t they? Many lost their incomes and/or homes or at least lost them for an extended period of time. Life goes on. Why waste it in limbo in Grand Forks?

Sadly, the leaders in city government here learned nothing from that, or, perhaps they knew it all along and just didn’t care while they filled their coffers with the incentives provided by developers. Let’s put it that way. Why on earth else would they sell a public park when lots of privately owned land was available for sale that would have been well-suited? And why provide a tax-free status to said developer? I am not answering those questions here – I am asking those questions.

Grand Forks is not unique in this – it is happening elsewhere. Where it happens, though, it is worth considering the harm it does to long-term economic stability. Think about it. What would you consider a good, sound investment? Traditionally we think of our home as such an investment. We expect that if we pay it off and maintain it, it will be worth more when we sell it and we will have made money on it or at least not lost money on it. When we remove this incentive for investment we make that a less attractive place to put our money. When we abuse eminent domain for some private interest we de-stabilize property values ultimately. On the other hand, when we treat property ownership with respect we strengthen that as an investment and thus strengthen people’s investment in their community.

Michigan found a way a few years ago to incentivise the taking of “abandoned” property on which taxes were owed. Legislation enacted to expedite seizure and demolition or rehabilitation of “abandoned” properties allows the county to step over normal impediments to seizure of a home, such as liens, etc., and go right for the jugular. They get to act as the agents in resale and they get to keep profits. A homeowner in Oakland County, just north of Detroit, paid $60,000 for a home. Somehow the tax computation was off. After believing he had the taxes paid up to date, he found he was short by $8.41. Yes, you read that right, eight dollars, forty-one cents. On this pretext the county stole his home and auctioned it off for $24,500. This amount the county kept. Today that property is listed as worth $128,000. Of course the owner has no way to benefit from the rise in value. This story has been repeated over and over. In the past 10 years 150,000 properties have been seized, many of them for negligible tax bills. It’s not helping. Many of these properties sit empty and abandoned after they are seized and sold. In the meantime this predatory practice is driving down the desirability of home ownership and investment at a time when that should be encouraged, not discouraged.

In addition to the detriment to the economy of such tactics over the long term, there is an ethical violation here which is impossible to overlook. Anyone knowingly profiting from such a scheme has done himself harm to his character. Anyone profiting from theft of another’s property could easily become the next person’s victim. And over it all is the county, the “authorities”, who take the first dollar of profit from theft of property. We have due process written into our Constitution for good reason. There is no excuse for this kind of abuse. Read more about the Michigan law and experience here: https://reason.com/2019/11/06/a-michigan-man-underpaid-his-property-taxes-by-8-41-the-county-seized-his-property-sold-it-and-kept-the-profits/