urgent: Will Land Owners be Fairly Compensated?

Posted on | March 12, 2009 |

URGENT……..Senator Kevin Dahle and Representative David Bly have authored bills to fix the PUBLIC SERVICE CORPORATION EMINENT DOMAIN EXEMPTION, and Rep. Bly’s bill will be heard tomorrow, Friday at 1:00 PM, ROOM 10 of the State Office Building.  Please show up to support passage of this bill out of committee.  It is vital to getting the bill eventually to the floor of the legislature for a vote.

When CETF started we told you that one of the issues we will work on is the Public Service Corporation Exceptions that exempt utilities, including CapX, from having to pay landowners the same compensation that state, country and local government must pay.

Your help getting the word out and contacting legislators will make a big difference in whether or not the bills pass.  House File 1182 and Senate File 1112 restore the ability for property owners to negotiate for fair compensation when dealing with utilities on easements over their property.  The deadline for getting them through committee and on to the floor(s) is March 27, 2009. We need your voice to help get these bills passed BEFORE CapX receives permits.  It is not widely known that “public service corporations,” including electric utilities and pipeline companies, are exempted from many of the provisions enacted to protect farmers and other landowners when the government condemns property by eminent domain. (Minn. Stat. §117.189).  Specifically, in eminent domain for pipelines and power lines, attorneys’ fees will not be ordered even if the award exceeds the offer (Minn. Stat. § 117.031).  Public service corporations aren’t required to obtain an appraisal or negotiate in good faith (Minn. Stat. §117.036), although they have recently been required to give the property owner a copy of any appraisal obtained before beginning condemnation (Laws 2008, Ch. 296, Art. 1, Sec. 4). Compensation for loss of a going concern, a minimum compensation level based on replacement value, and relocation assistance for displaced businesses are excluded. (Minn. Stat. §§§ 117.186; 117.187; 117. 52, Subd. 1a)  And if the landowner gets his or her own appraisal in a pipeline or power line condemnation proceeding, reimbursement of this cost is capped at $500. (Minn. Stat. § 117.085).  Legislation introduced this year (S.F. 1112, H.F. 1182) would eliminate these exemptions for public service corporations seeking to exercise eminent domain.

ACTION:

1. Contact your Senator and Representative, and ask that they support these Bills (go to www.senate.leg.state.mn.us or www.house.leg.state.mn.us to find out who your Senator or Representative is and how to contact them).
2. Contact Members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Local Government Division, a subcommittee of the State and Local Government Operations Committee, and ask them to set hearings for these Bills.
3. Contact the Bills’ Authors: Senator Kevin Dahle at (651) 296-1279 and Representative David Bly at (651) 296-7065 and ask how you can help get these Bills passed.
4. Contact the Senators and Representatives whose Districts will have the CapX 2020 lines, and ask them to support these Bills. The lines run for over 600 miles, and will cross Senate Districts 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 23, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31 and 36.

To read the Statues: https://www.revisor.leg.state.mn.us/statutes/?id=117.189

TALKING POINTS WITH YOUR LEGISLATORS

Here is a narrative that highlights some points you can make to your legislator:  “As a property owner who potentially has to negotiate with CapX 2020 about an easement for their transmission lines over my land, I am outraged by the advantages CapX was given by the 2006 eminent domain law exceptions. There is no way I can get a fair deal with these exceptions and I am asking you to work to get them changed.  A Bill has been introduced in the Senate (Senate File 1112) and House (House File 1182) that repeals these unfair exemptions and gives me a chance to at least get fair treatment and compensation for my land.  If I have to host these huge, unsightly, dangerous structures, the least I should receive is fair treatment and compensation for doing so.  Please bring fairness for property owners back to the eminent domain process in Minnesota.”

You can also explain: “In 2006, Minnesota gave landowners some important procedural rights in condemnations by state, county and local government, but then it exempted the private utilities from being required to provide the same rights. We just want the private utilities to play by the same condemnation rules as currently apply to government condemnations.

BACKGROUND

When the Legislature passed tougher laws on condemning private lands in 2006, to make the process more fair for private landowners being condemned, the utilities were able at the last minute to get themselves exempted from these new laws. It is inconceivable how this exemption was ever approved. Those tougher laws apply to condemnations by the state, county or local governments, but not to private utility companies. So when Hennepin County condemns your land for a new road, the county needs to be fair to you, but when Xcel Energy condemns your land for a 3435 kilovolt CapX power line, Xcel doesn’t need to be fair to you? Should shareholders of these private companies, or their ratepayers, get a better deal than the government and the taxpayers? This would be like passing a law restricting the powers of the police to protect citizen civil rights, but then letting private Pinkerton guards operate free of the same restrictions that applied to police officers.

Here is an example of the 2006 restrictions that currently do not apply to the utilities. MN Statute 117.031 mandates that the judge in a condemnation case require the state to pay the landowner’s attorney fees if the court’s award for the land is greater in amount, by at least 40%, than the state’s last pretrial offer; if the final award is greater by at least 20%, then the judge has the discretion to make the state pay the landowner’s attorney fees. Without this provision, the state could just make a “low ball” offer to the land owner, hoping that the expenses of hiring a lawyer to fight a clearly unfair offer would discourage the landowner from going to trial. Right now, the utilities operate free of this restriction, which means that they have no incentive to make a reasonable offer to landowners.

Another example of the 2006 restrictions is found in MN Statute 117.036. That law requires the state to give copies of its appraisals of the land being condemned to the property owner, to reimburse the property owner up to $5,000 for the owner’s appraisal costs, and to “negotiate in good faith” with the property owner. Most of these restrictions apply to the utilities, thanks to MN Statute 117.189. As a result, when utilities start condemnation, the landowner can get reimbursed only $500 for the owner’s appraisal fees, and the utility doesn’t even have to negotiate “in good faith”.

It is completely unfair to give the utilities the absolute power of condemnation and then not require them to abide by the same rules that apply to the government when it condemns private lands. Remember, land owners being condemned are not “volunteers” who are trying to sell their land to the condemning authority; they are unwilling participants in this forced sale process. As a result, they need the protections of the 2006 restrictions, to give them some small measure of protection when dealing with the huge professional bureaucracies of the utilities, who have the financial resources, experience, and professional staff to pretty much “win” every condemnation contest even if playing under the 2006 provisions.

Comments

2 Responses to “urgent: Will Land Owners be Fairly Compensated?”

1. Brandt Volkj
   April 3rd, 2009 @ 8:56 am

   Is there a certain condmenation attorney hired by the task force or the locals that i can get in touch with? I believe i will be facing condemnation on my property at 24491 Dakota ave. lakeville, MN. Our house is aproximatly 62′ from the line and our new finished pole building is about 30′ from the line. Any input on my situation? We fear that we have stuck an extremely large amount of money into our property and will not be compensated for it fairly. Even though have all the monetary reciepts for it.

2. J, L. Currie
   June 29th, 2010 @ 7:25 am

   Does Texas have an organization as Minnesota?

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