Comments on: Decatur City Attorney States Annexation Referendum Not Necessary, Residents Create Petition

By: City Girl

City Girl — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 18:30:08 +0000

I am familiar with Kelo and I stand by my comment. The Kelo opinion said that economic development is a legitimate public purpose, but also noted that government still can’t use eminent domain to take property and give to a private company. So it can be used for large-scale redevelopment projects (such as an Atlantic Station) but not, as in your example, to hand over property to Walmart. Further, the court said states can impose tighter definitions of what “public purpose” is if they wanted to go beyond the federal definition and many states, including Georgia, did so.

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:23:12 +0000

I think Philadelphia still has a wage tax.

By: At Home in Decatur

At Home in Decatur — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:16:26 +0000

Re “By the same token, much of northern NJ exists as it does due to its proximity to NYC. Should those cities pay NYC taxes?”

Actually, back in the day, NYC had a tax on wages earned by non-residents. Not sure that’s still true. So many northern New Jersey residents WERE paying NYC tax! The idea was that the millions who commuted to NYC daily were using public services just like residents were. (There also was a rule requiring all City positions, except an exempted few, be filled hy NYC residents.)

By: Jeff

Jeff — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 14:06:15 +0000

Would there be a celiac exemption?

By: Ridgelandistan

Ridgelandistan — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 11:49:18 +0000

City Girl, You are quite mistaken about that.

The United States is a fiefdom where persons may be granted titles of fief (“fee” simple) in order to hold and exchange some surface rights for defined land areas such as an unincorporated lot.

The government has the ultimate right to take and use any land within its borders for any reason as long as it compensates affected fief (title) holders.