Senate subcommittee supports bill curbing eminent domain laws

Associated Press
Published February 1, 2006

COLUMBIA -- A bill that cleared a Senate subcommittee Tuesday would let voters decide whether to change the state constitution and limit government power to take private land.

A Senate Judiciary subcommittee approved two ballot questions. One asks voters to clarify that private property can only be taken when it will be owned and used by the government or by everyone.

The second question involves eliminating parts of the constitution that allow local governments in Charleston, Cherokee, Florence, Greenville, Laurens, Richland, Spartanburg, Sumter and York counties slum clearance authority.

That bill now heads to the full Senate Judiciary Committee along with a second bill that sets up a special Senate-House committee that will study how the state's existing eminent domain laws have been used.

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