St. Sen. Coughlin Reintroduces Property Rights Resolution

COLUMBUS—State Senator Kevin Coughlin (R-Cuyahoga Falls) today issued the following statement announcing the introduction of Senate Joint Resolution 3, a reintroduced version of Senate Joint Resolution 1. A suggestion of the Eminent Domain Task Force, SJR1, received the necessary votes to pass in the Senate, however the resolution fell 4 votes short of the required 3/5 majority necessary for passage in the House. All or part of the following can be attributed to Senator Coughlin:

“The June 14th vote in the House of Representative that defeated SJR1 was a sad day for property owners in Ohio. The failure of SJR 1 preserves, for home-rule municipalities, the option to challenge the protections created through the passage of Senate Bill 7.

“This uncertainty about the status of private property protections in Ohio is unacceptable. Every Ohioan living within a home-rule municipality is one judicial challenge away from losing all of the eminent domain protections gained through the passage of SB 7.

“It is with the hope of providing absolute clarity in the law that I have reintroduced this necessary senate joint resolution. Hopefully, my colleagues in the House who chose to vote against this common sense resolution will have a change of heart.

“Kelo-like eminent domain abuses in Ohio have not occurred in our townships and counties, they occurred in home-rule municipalities. Only with the passage of SJR 3, and its subsequent approval by the voters, will private property owners within these municipalities be guaranteed the protections recently established by the General Assembly.”