Washington, D.C. – The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste (CCAGW) today applauded CAGW member Paulene Staben, and the coalition she co-founded called Protect Private Property (P3), for submitting more than 19,000 signatures to refer Senate Bill 174 to the November general-election ballot.   

The bill, titled “An act to revise certain provisions relating to the exercise of eminent domain by railroads,” was passed by the 2008 South Dakota Legislature and would become law on July 1, 2008 without a referendum.  S.B. 174 makes a series of technical changes to existing railroad eminent domain laws that will make the process for seizing private property for commercial use easier for railroad companies, such as the Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad (DM&E), which wants to lay new track across privately owned property to access coal fields in Wyoming’s Powder River Basin.

S.B. 174 gives railroads “quick-take” powers that are not provided to any other private entity in South Dakota.  If a railroad makes an offer for property and the owner rejects it, the railroad can file a condemnation lawsuit.  S.B. 174 provides that even while a condemnation lawsuit is continuing, private property may be taken "as soon as possible" by posting a bond with the court. A railroad could take private property the same day it files a condemnation lawsuit.

The petitions gathered by P3 to place a referendum on the November ballot will enable South Dakotans to reject this unprecedented power grab by the railroad, protect property rights, and send a message across the nation that this type of legislation is unacceptable. 

“I am proud of Paulene Staben’s leadership in this effort,” said CCAGW President Tom Schatz.  “She has taken on the establishment and a powerful special interest on behalf of the taxpayers.”

In February 2007, the CCAGW declared a victory for taxpayers when the Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) denied DM&E a $2.3 billion loan for the rail line.  The DM&E loan had moved quietly through Congress thanks to behind-the-scenes legislative maneuvers by Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), a former lobbyist for DM&E.  Sen. Thune was instrumental in slipping in an increase in the FRA’s loan guarantee authority from $3.5 billion to $35 billion into the 2005 Safe, Accountable, Flexible, and Efficient Transportation Equity Act, in apparent anticipation of the loan.  Sen. Thune’s actions earned him CAGW’s Porker of the Month award in November 2006.  If the provisions of S.B. 174 take effect, they would undermine the elimination of the DM&E loan.

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste is the lobbying arm of Citizens Against Government Waste, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to eliminating waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement in government.