No on 98, Yes on 99

Eminent domain has become big business -- for the ballot measure industry. Californians rejected an initiative two years ago that purported to protect property owners from government land grabs, but on closer inspection turned out to be an attempt to sweep away the state's environmental protection and zoning laws. Now we have another initiative that masquerades as a simple correction to the notorious Kelo ruling, but really carries the long-standing agenda of interests that want to extinguish rent control and block water and air quality laws.

With the ill-considered Proposition 98, property rights advocates once again have undermined themselves and poorly served homeowners, businesspeople and real estate investors by overreaching. It would have been so easy to give Californians what they need: assurance that no city, county, other local government or the state can condemn property, evict the owner and turn the land over to a developer who donated to elected officials and then convinced them that he could make the plot prettier and more productive.

That kind of assurance is needed in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 decision in Kelo vs. New London, upholding a Connecticut city's decision to give the plaintiff's property to the developer of a commercial project. Such takings of private homes are rare in California, but owners should not have to fear them.

There was, in fact, a real opportunity to craft a good law in the Capitol, exactly where that sort of work is supposed to get done. Lawmakers were negotiating a constitutional amendment that would have blocked forced private-to-private transfer of homes. It didn't go far enough, but it was a start, and talks with property rights advocates were proceeding.

But landlords detected a chance to use the fear of eminent domain abuse for their own purposes. They poured several million dollars into getting advocates to drop the legislative approach and go to the ballot with an initiative that quietly targets the rent control laws in about 100 California cities, including Los Angeles, Santa Monica and West Hollywood.

You wouldn't know from reading the ballot title and summary that Proposition 98 is an anti-rent-control measure, but that's become the primary focus of its financial backers, the vast majority of whom are landlords and rental property management companies. One of them is connected to The Times. Sam Zell is chairman and CEO of Tribune Co., which owns The Times; he also chairs Equity Lifestyle Properties Inc., which donated $50,000 to Proposition 98. The company owns 27 mobile home parks in California, many of them subject to rent control.