Congratulations to Integrated Mail Industries for successfully strong arming land from Bee Bus Lines:

Land on Milwaukee's north side will become available for an adjacent company to expand under the pending settlement of a two-year-old eminent domain dispute.

The parcels are owned by Bee Bus Line Inc., which operates at 4330 N. 35th St., just north of the site.

The Redevelopment Authority in December 2007 began eminent domain proceedings to force a sale of the parcels. City officials said the land is needed for a 60,000-square-foot expansion of Integrated Mail Industries Ltd., 3450 W. Hopkins St.

Bee's properties are adjacent to Integrated Mail, a direct-marketing company, which says it might leave Milwaukee if it cannot expand its 167,000-square-foot facility. Integrated Mail, with 120 employees, expects to create 50 full-time jobs by expanding.

The Common Council authorized eminent domain proceedings after land sale negotiations between Integrated Mail and Bee broke down. The Redevelopment Authority would use eminent domain to buy the land and then resell it to Intergrated Mail.

Bee objected, saying the sale should be negotiated between the two companies without the city's intervention. Integrated wanted to buy the parcels for much less than what Bee paid, the bus company said. Bee also said Integrated Mail would not negotiate in good faith because of the eminent domain proceedings.

Of course, the way the article is written, it seems so wonderful.  After all... jobs will be created with this new land!  But let's look at what really happened here.  IMI went to Bee and asked to buy the property for a price.  Bee said it wanted moren (actually they just wanted at least what they paid for it), and IMI, instead of continuing to negotiate in good faith, went to the city and demand they use eminent domain to take the property at a lower price and resell it to them.  This is nothing but government sponsored theft.

If property rights meant anything, then a property owner (Bee Bus Lines) ought to be allowed to ask whatever they wanted for that property.  If their price is too high, than no sale will be made and they'll be stuck.  But just because IMI didn't want to pay a price doesn't mean that they ought be allowed to go the city to "force a sale".  That is like suggesting that if a woman declines a man at a bar, he ought to be able to go the police and have a cop hold her down while he rapes her... to force the completion of a "transaction" he demanded of her.  Having a right to something means nothing if it does not include the right to refuse sale of that item, for whatever reason.  This isn't the God Father... you have the right to refuse an offer.

The framers of our Constitution thought the same thing when they drafted the 5th Amendment:

... nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

When the Kelo decision was handed down, so many states objected to the poor decision that they passed laws strengthening property owner's rights against eminent domain.  One of the dangers of course is that someone who is politically well connected can use Eminent Domain against private property owners who are less well connected.  It should come as no surprise to anyone that this is probably happening in this case.

What was left out of the article above is that Integrated Mail Industries is owned by the AB Data Group.  Among many of the companies under the AB Data umbrella is the AB Data Consulting Group.  Their home page lists this as their mission (emphasis mine):

Our clients are working hard to change the world – and A.B. Data is helping them do it. For over 25 years, the AB Data Consulting Group has fostered dedicated partnerships with nonprofit charitable and progressive advocacy organizations, pushing the boundaries of direct response fundraising and securing the resources they need to fulfill their critical missions. AB Data's long record of integrated programs and cutting edge direct response fundraising solutions pave the way for success.

They were the major direct major consulting firm for the Obama campaign, and the owners of AB Data are major political movers in Milwaukee.  During the 2008 election cycle, between the three owners (Jerry Benjamin, Chuck Pruitt and Bruce Arbit) more than $10,000 was personally given to the Obama campaign alone according to a record search on OpenSecrets.org (along with various other Senate and Congressional campaigns).  A similar search on the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign showed smaller amounts given to dozens of state candidates over the years.  Unfortunately, Tom Barrett is not required to report on his campaign contributions for his gubernatorial run until the end of the month, but his mayoral contributions show Benjamin gave $1000 during the last mayoral campaign and the Arbit family donated less.  It's a bit hard to tell if that is all because the data is not combined anywhere in a single report.

Did any of this have to do with this recent decision? It's hard to tell.  However, the fear over these very questions was the reason why the prohibition against government taking property for private benefit was placed in the Constitution in the first place. And even if the reasons for the eminent domain proceedings had nothing to do with any contributions, Bee Bus Lines still had their lands stolen for IMI's profit.

Update 02/02/2010: It should also be noted that in the January Continuing 2010 report for Tom Barrett's Governor's campaign (searchable here) both Pruitt and Arbit gave $1,000. Jerry Benjamin did not donate as far as I can tell at this point.