SEN. KOLKHORST’S EMINENT DOMAIN REFORM LEGISLATION PASSES STATE SENATE

  

State Senator Lois Kolkhorst’s legislation on eminent domain reform is now headed to the State House.

Senate Bill 421, which calls for strengthened private property rights for landowners facing eminent domain, was passed with bipartisan support.

The Texas House will now consider it, before potentially sending it to the Governor’s desk.

The bill provides several statutory changes to Texas Property Code, which include: preventing low initial offers, improving easement terms, and requiring meetings to ensure property owners understand the process and get their questions answered.

Kolkhorst said the bill “levels the playing field between those who own property, and those who seek to use eminent domain to take that property”. She said Texas landowners believe in the right to ‘life, liberty and property’, and it is important that those landowners are treated with “respect, dignity, and fairness”.

In March, Kolkhorst’s bill was amended before it passed through the Senate’s State Affairs Committee. Supporters say the amended bill features compromises reached by landowner groups and property takers during negotiations.  They say the bill should still provide a much more transparent and fair eminent domain process.

Several organizations thanked Kolkhorst for her efforts, including the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA), Texas Farm Bureau, and Texas Wildlife Association.

TSCRA President Robert McKnight said Texans deserve an eminent domain process that is transparent, respectful, and “holds private condemnors accountable if they don’t do it right”.

Texas Farm Bureau President Russell Boening called eminent domain reform “the property rights issue of our time”. Texas Wildlife Association Board President J. David Anderson said the legislation is about treating people fairly, which is “simply the right thing to do”.