Lawmakers OK bills on image protection, property rights
“The Senate voted 23-7 to approve Senate Bill 757 by Sen. Jim Hendren, R-Gravette, which would create the Private Property Protection Act.
Under the bill, a property owner could take a government entity to court and allege that a regulatory program has permanently reduced the value of the person’s property by at least 20 percent. If a circuit judge finds that to be true, the government entity would have to pay the property owner the amount by which the value was reduced or, alternatively, end the regulatory program.
“Unfortunately, unlike 26 other states, we have no statutory way for people to assert their constitutional rights to be compensated when government agencies do unjustly, or even if it’s justly, take their property through regulatory use,” Hendren told senators.
No one spoke against the bill, which goes to the House.”
Ellis, Dale. Arkansas News 18 March 2015.