The people speak.(News & Numbers)(voters decide on taxes and eminant domain)(Brief article)

In early November, Americans across the country not only voted for representation but registered their opinions on other governmental actions. Major tax cuts, along with tax and spending limits on the ballot in six states all failed. Voters in Maine, Nebraska, and Oregon rejected tax and spending limits and voters in Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington decided against significant tax reductions. Tobacco tax increases were approved in Arizona and South Dakota, but rejected in California and Missouri.

Eminent domain was another issue before the voters in this election. Eleven states gave voters their first chance to override last year's Supreme Court Kelo v. New London ruling that permits state and local governments to seize private property for local economic development purposes, but said that states can restrict the use of eminent domain under their own constitutions. The measures in 10 of the states passed. More than half the states have now addressed eminent domain since the Supreme Court's June 2005 decision. Measures on the ballot in four states involved a separate land-use issue which would require governments to pay property owners for "regulatory takings," such as zoning or other building restrictions that substantially reduce a land's value. Those measures failed in three of the states (California, Idaho, and Washington) but passed in Arizona.

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