Apparently, it's the same with the Archie family in Madison County. They own 100 acres just south of Canton. You must know that vicinity is the hottest real estate in all of Mississippi right now. Options obtained The state has options on much of that land but needs more to accommodate the automaker, according to J.C. Burns, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority. So the state is ready to buy the Archies' land and other parcels by negotiation, and if that fails, by exercising what is known as the right of eminent domain, Burns says.
Government can do that when it comes to enhancing the public welfare.
It's done all the time to make way for highways, parks and so on. There may be a problem in this case, however. Whereas this action by the agency would take the private land and hand it over to the public, the state would then lease it to the corporation, says Burns. A nonprofit organization called the Institute for Justice suspicions the state wants to merely transfer property from one private owner to another. The Washington, D.C.-based institute is not to be trifled with.