Political Quotes

“Today, I and Senator Jim Talent introduce the Easement Owners Fair Compensation Act of 2006. This bill will right a wrong done to property owners from whom the government took property without compensation. It will also ensure that future property owners are treated fairly when the government seeks to take their property through eminent domain. In 1992, the federal government confiscated property owned by 102 St. Louis County, Missouri residents through the Federal Rails to Trails Act. The taking imposed an easement on their property for a public recreational hiking/biking trail. A trail easement was established on their property on December 20, 1992. After twelve years of bureaucratic fighting and delay, the Justice Department admitted the government's takings liability and agreed to pay the property owners $2,385,000.85 for their property, interest and legal fees. However, two days before the U.S. Court of Claims was scheduled to approve the compensation agreement, the U.S. Federal Circuit issued the Caldwell decision regarding a rails-to-trails takings case in Georgia. That decision established the statute of limitations for rails-to- trails claims as the date of notice of interim trail use, not the date the trail easement was imposed on the property, as previously assumed. Under the new date, the statute of limitations on the St. Louis County takings claim had expired.…”