NEWS AND NOTES FOR A MONDAY

EMINENT DOMAIN AND THE DOT - In theory, this makes it much harder for private individuals to fight eminent domain claims...

An out-of-state attorney is organizing opposition to a Wisconsin Department of Transportation budget proposal that would make it more difficult to fight the agency over land seized for road projects.

The proposal limits the amount of attorney fees landowners can recover when challenging WisDOT over cases involving eminent domain, which is a state law allowing government to buy land for public projects. In some cases, landowners appeal WisDOT appraisals of land needed for road projects to get more money for their properties.

But if the proposal becomes law, landowners appealing the WisDOT appraisals might end up owing their lawyers more money than they win in court, said Kelly Keady, an attorney with the Minneapolis law firm Biersdorf & Associates SC, which specializes in eminent domain cases. Essentially, the proposal would make it more difficult for landowners to contest WisDOT appraisals, he said.
http://www.dailyreporter.com/item.cfm?recid=20051045&snippet=f

DOYLE AND TUITION FOR ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS - VERSION FOUR - Reason #102 to question the motives of our Governor

For the fourth straight budget, Gov. Jim Doyle has included a provision that would allow illegal immigrants who graduate from Wisconsin high schools to pay in-state tuition at University of Wisconsin institutions.

The state Legislature has stripped the item out of each budget in the past, but with a Democratic majority in both houses, advocates are hopeful it will be successful this time.

But even some Democrats say the measure faces serious problems, including the potential to conflict with a 1996 federal law. That law prohibits states from providing any higher education benefit based on residency to illegal immigrants unless they provide the same benefit to other U.S. citizens, regardless of where they live.
http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/latest/444013

Governor’s proposed budget includes farmland preservation
MADISON — In perhaps the biggest initiative to protect Wisconsin’s farmlands in three decades, Gov. Jim Doyle’s proposed budget would try to prevent cornfields from being gobbled up by strip malls and subdivisions.

The proposal would redirect tens of millions of dollars in existing state incentives to keep farms from being sold for development and would prod local governments and counties to set up their own plans for preserving lands.
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2009/03/23/news/00lead.txt