Cash For Debt

Ah, the power of a police force. The Kane County, Illinois government is in a quandary. They signed a long term lease on an old Montgomery Ward to house their government offices. But then decided they wanted to buy the building.

If it was a deal with anyone but a governmental agency, the process would have involved negotiations and paying a fair market price. But not to these fine governmental officials. Instead when they were told that the lowball offer they made was not good enough they decided to vote for an eminent domain takeover.

How is that for negotiating power. I could see if there was no other space in town and Montgomery Ward refused to rent the space to them, then there would be a specific need. But instead they have a 20 year lease.

A twenty year lease, that I guess is not with favorable enough terms, that the fine elected governmental officials will be willing to bring the full police force of the government to take the building from private citizens.

That is what is wrong with eminent domain laws in the country. It allows government to make bad decisions and then have the citizens pay for it.

Kane County and the New York-based limited partnership that now owns the property reportedly are several million dollars apart in their respective appraisals on the property that for tax purposes is assessed at slightly more than $8 million.

Tuesday’s vote to file an eminent-domain lawsuit to acquire the property came after an executive session at which board members reportedly were told that talks between the two sides over selection of an independent appraiser to review the situation had reached an impasse. via the chicagotribune.com

Categories Real Estate