Property Rights Amendment Passes Senate

Good afternoon. My name is Trey Davis, and I have been fortunate enough to work this year and last on a constitutional amendment to protect your property rights in Virginia’s constitution. With bipartisan support from the 2011 and 2012 Sessions of the General Assembly, we are closer to achieving this goal than ever.

Thanks to your hard work this fall with the Stand Our Ground: Property Rights postcard campaign, we achieved a major victory yesterday, getting the property rights constitutional amendment through the Senate on a 23-17 vote and through the House of Delegates on a vote of 80-18. SB437 (Obenshain) and HB1035 (Joannou), the companion legislation to define lost profits and lost access in regards to eminent domain takings, have passed their respective houses as well.

Here are a few reactions from our Attorney General and Senator Mark Obenshain, the chief patron on the Senate side:

Virginia Farm Bureau News Lead: Eminent domain constitutional amendment is ‘finally in sight’

This story appeared in the Jan. 19 edition of News Leads, the week's top ag stories sent out by the VFB Communications Department to media across the state:

A Virginia constitutional amendment to protect private property rights has progressed further than ever before in the legislative approval process.

HJ3 and SJ3, the state House of Delegates and Senate versions of the bill, tighten the definition of public use and require just compensation for owners of property taken for eminent domain. The bills passed in last year’s General Assembly.

“We have never gotten past that first step, but last year we did,” said Del. Robert Bell, R-Charlottesville, the chief patron of HJ3. “This year we are finally in sight of our goal.”

For a constitutional amendment to be enacted, it must pass in the General Assembly two years in a row with the exact same wording. If it passes in 2012, as it did in 2011, it will be placed on the ballot this November and would have to be approved by a majority of Virginia voters.