Posted on 01/21/2014 10:25:32 AM PST by lowbridge
World War II veteran Frank Whitney is fighting taxpayer-funded attempts by a New York village to seize his private property.
Officials in the village of Saltaire on Fire Island, N.Y., are trying to take Whitney’s Saltaire Market grocery using eminent domain so they can build a municipality-owned market, the New York Post reported.
And in an attempt to get their hands on the 88-year-old’s property, which was damaged in 2012 by Superstorm Sandy, village officials may try to raise the $2.5 million needed to buy and refurbish his grocery store by increasing the area’s property taxes.
Whitney said he has means and the money to fix the damaged store, which he has owned and operated for 25 years, but he said Saltaire officials are preventing him from repairing his property.
(Excerpt) Read more at theblaze.com ...
The Kelo decision lives on.
He fought, and perhaps bled, for that right.
let me see if I have this right..
He owns it.
It was damaged in the storm.
he wants to fix it with his own (and likely his insurance companies) money.
But the government won’t let him. So they are gonna just take it from him and fix it with tax payers money?
defies logic.
No it doesn't.
It DEFINES tyranny.
If it’s on Fire Island, it probably doesn’t carry enough variety of condom colors and flavors.
Fire Island is a homosexual mecca... at least it was in the Sixties. Would be interesting to find out who the town officials are.
If they are using is federal dollars to purchase his property then he just needs to contact he the federal OIG that oversees the federal department that issued that money to the City.
The Feds have very strict property acquisition policies which favor the property owner.
If it is local dollars that is different but they place to hook them is if they have ever used federal dollars before then he should be able to claim a unfair practice as the City has to adopt the Fed Policy for property acquisitions.
And if you live in a single-family home and can walk to this market, watch out, they’ll be coming after your property next.
After they spend $2.5 million on acquiring this guy’s land, they’ll need to increase the density of the surrounding area to provide the bodies to shop at the municipally-owned market to “re-coup their investment”. As Rush says, “Don’t doubt me on this”.
Thanks, Nino!
If we really wanted Kelo to be reversed it would be absurdly easy:
Have 'projections' which show that seizing the real property of the Supreme Court justices will turn a profit and seize them under Kelo.
Make them lay in the bed they made.
With the present “Just Us” department I see little chance of this ending well.
“defies logic.”
When was communism ever logical?
It all boils down to “fair market value”. If the village did its homework then they will generate of what they or their appraiser deems an offer of FMV. This is the starting point for negotiations. The owner can then propose their own FMV.
During this time the Village Council can take a legal action which says that they deem the purchase of this property to be in the public’s best interest and vote to initiate ED process. This is not the same as getting an court order but only the beginning of the process especially if the owner has lawyered up.
In the end if it does see the inside of a courtroom typically the judge will split the baby and the city will pay about their original offer plus the half of what the owner wanted.
Although the village must have documented everything in the offer the owner can go in on emotion and sentimental value.
At least that is the way I have always done it.
Alvin York’s Experience with the IRS!
We all know the story from the wonderful Gary Cooper film about one of the greatest Christian heroes of WWI (or any era, for that matter). What follows is a partial reprint from a piece which ran in the 1/6/98 issue of The New American magazine and tells – as Paul Harvey would say – the rest of the story: (Start New American piece)
Upon returning to America, Sergeant York was showered with offers of fame and fortune, including a nationwide tour, endorsements, and movie deals. But such was not in York’s character, who claimed “I…felt that to take money like that would be commercializing my uniform and soldering.” York wrote in his diary: “It was very nice, but I sure wanted to get back to my people where I belonged, and the little old mother and the little mountain girl who were waiting. And I wanted to be in the mountains again and get out with hounds, and tree a coon or knock over a red fox. And in the midst of the dinners and receptions I couldn’t help thinking of these things.”
Alvin York went home to his mountains. He made his way to the same mountain where he prayed to God two years earlier for guidance, and there thanked God for bringing him home safely from the war.
In 1927, York established the Alvin C. York Agricultural Institute for the boys and girls of the mountains who had few educational opportunities. By 1937, York was no longer able to operate the school and it became a special part of the Tennessee public school system. In 1941, the story of Alvin York was made into a movie starring Gary Cooper, who won the Academy Award for the role. Alvin York acted as an adviser to the film. In 1952, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and became bedridden.
By 1961, Alvin York, one of America’s greatest military heroes, was partially paralyzed, almost blind, and virtually penniless.
THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT, THROUGH THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE, REPAID ITS DEBT BY SUING YORK FOR BACK TAXES. THE IRS CLAIMED THAT YORK’S ROYALTIES FROM THE MOVIE, MOST OF WHICH HAD GONE TO CHARITY, SHOULD BE TAXED AT A HIGHER RATE THAN YORK HAD USED. IN ALL, THE IRS CLAIMED YORK OWED THE U.S.GOVERNMENT $85,442, PLUS AN ADDITIONAL $87,155 IN INTEREST. THE IRS OFFERED TO SETTLE FOR $25,000 HOWEVER, WHEN IT BECAME APPARENT THAT ALL OF YORK’S ASSETS DID NOT EQUAL THE $172,597 SOUGHT. WHEN THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WAS ALERTED TO SERGEANT YORK’S PLIGHT, INDIVIDUALS CHIPPED IN OVER $50,000 – WHICH COVERED THE DEBT WITH MONEY LEFT OVER FOR A TRUST FUND.” (End of New American excerpt.)
The New American
Box 8040
Appleton, WI 54913-9895
Are you suggesting they are stealing private property and violating this fella’s rights because he is not a homosexual or an advocate of the homosexual agenda?
It’s still tyranny regardless of whom the town officials have sex with.
In the end, the tyrannical demands of the IRS were still met, without resistance.
So....just how many pieces of property have you seized by the use of Eminent Domain proceedings? What about "he doesn't want to sell it" don't you understand? Just because the city wants it doesn't meant that they should just be able to take it!
There are a few interesting wrinkles with this one.
…no building plans or architectural drawings of any kind have ever been presented to the village for review,” [the city said].
Officials also said the veteran’s submitted plans for repairs are insufficient or incomplete.
Such a public position by the city, to the extent it is an accurate quote, ought to be worth something in the damage calculation.
Further, it appears the city is intentionally depriving the owner of his right to repair in hopes the city will be able to buy it on the cheap. If so, at the least, the amount of any insurance proceeds the insurer would be obligated to pay - as a result of the policy owner paid for over the years - ought to be included in any assessment made.
Please do the research before the IRS stooges hit this post with their LIES.
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