Amendments! Who knew there were amendments.
I really wish I read a local newspaper because maybe then I’d know we’d be voting on constitutional amendments. Thanks DPL! The first amendment is one to stop private companies from using imminent domain to take people property. The second is not so clear to me. Anyone? Old Guy?
Update: Here is an article in the Union Leader about this. It looks like Old Guy was a little off, this amendments would allow for floterial districts, i.e. districts that span across town lines. Thus representatives represent a body of people and not a town or part of a town (which could be defined as bodies of people). I think this would just force the NH supreme court, when it is forced to redraw the district lines next the legislative cannot do its job, they have to use floterial districts. Am I off? I also am amused the argument against this amendment, “It’s too long and too difficult to read, so people wont vote for it.” Wow. No argument against its merit, just against its verbiage.
Amendment #1 is one of those feel good amendments. It is consistent with existing state legislation and certainly consistent with case law in NH. That is the story I have been told by a number of knowledgeable legal minds. Certainly that is how we have been advised. By the way the railroads have been granted emminent domain authority by the US Government back in the 19th century (and still retain it)and people have seemed to forgotten this. That authority is entirely to benefit a private party. There have also been quasi-governmental authorities granted said rights. Reedy Creek Development Authority (Disney) was granted the equivalent of municipal status by the Florida Legislature to allow Disney to develop Disney World. Thankfully I am not aware of any such rampant abuses in NH. Another thing people are not aware of are friendly takings. We have done that several times to clear a totally murky and impossible title problem. One instance potentially thousands of individuals with interest in this property may exist (5 to 6 generations later). This was requested by the owners of the property (and also involved a railroad)and they picked up the legal expenses.
Amendment #2 What is a reasonable deviation? I have developed redistricting plans in 1980, 1990 and 2000 for two different local governments in two states. The general rule is if your ward or district is within +- 5% of the average population for said district (divide the total pop by the number of wards or districts)you should be able to with stand most any challenge. If you deviate from that you better have a very good reason. This amendment appears to be reasonable on the surface. Of course in application, any scheme can be abused. This appears to be what we do now in many communities.
Comment by weird old guy — Wednesday, November 1, 2006 @ 2:13 am
So basically, this is us codifying things that are already done. Those state reps and sens really make our voting choices easy don’t they. Hurray for New Hampshire!
Comment by Z.Monkey — Wednesday, November 1, 2006 @ 8:53 am