This summer, we Californians will be voting on a proposition that prevents the state from stealing land through eminent domain, Prop 98.

The San Diego Union-Tribune has an article today that says our Governator opposes Prop 98:

SACRAMENTO – Citing fears that passage could stymie important water development and other public works projects, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said Friday he opposes a ballot measure that would greatly restrict the ability of government to seize private property.
[…]
Schwarzenegger joins a growing list of influential figures to oppose Proposition 98, including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a Democrat, and former Gov. Pete Wilson, a Republican.

Arnie is in some pretty good company there. One of our senators, a Democrat in name only, who never met a campaign contribution she didn’t like. And Pete Wilson, Mr. Wishy-Washy himself, is against it. At the moment, anyway. Pretty much every other fan of big government also opposes it.

The real purpose of Prop 98 is to prevent the state from stealing people’s homes and selling them to developers. Also, Prop 98 prevents family farms and opens spaces from being stolen by the state so they can sell the natural resources. As you might guess, I’m in favor of it. Naturally, the opponents have come up with a watered-down version, Prop 99. BallotPedia.org has a fairly nice comparison of the two propositions.

Prop 98 is really about big-box stores; city and state governments want the ability to steal enough urban and suburban land to be able to build new Wal*Marts. Of course, they can’t say that– no one wants ten acres of Wal*Mart next door– so they’re making the argument that football will never come back to LA unless they can steal enough land to build a football stadium.

The other lovely thing they’ve done is put this on the June ballot. This is a common trick in California: if you want very low voter turnout for something, put it on the June ballot the summer before a major “real” election. That way the uncommitted voters will ignore it among the noise of the larger election.

It’s a good thing we have so many other good reasons to live here, because our political system in this state is awful.