And the FW Weekly fills us in again.
WHO is Billy Mitchell? Until recently, he was just like the rest of us, living his life, minding his own business and then...
Until a few years ago, Mitchell was just a businessman and small-town rancher tending to cattle on 70 acres of land that’s been in his family for more than 40 years. The Trinity River snakes through his pastures, and a 130-year-old farmhouse provides shelter. Then a natural gas company used eminent domain laws to cut a 25-foot swath across the middle of his property to bury a pipeline. Mitchell spent more than $100,000 in legal fees in a two-year battle to protect his land, but the gas company prevailed.
Mitchell, whose travails were reported in the Weekly (“Fighting Back,” Sept. 5, 2007), has been on a mission ever since to reform property laws in Texas, and he sees Perry as Public Enemy No. 1. Perry’s desire for a mega-toll road stretching across Texas would have required rampant use of eminent domain, and the governor raised the ire of many Texans in 2007 when he vetoed a bill intended to provide landowners with more protection.
Standing up for what he believes is Mitchell’s MO. That’s why he fought the gas company instead of taking their initial offer for his land. That’s why he paid for a huge billboard along I-30 with the message: “Eminent Domain — Stealing What Others Work For.” That’s why he bought ads in local newspapers. And that’s why he sent the ethics commission a waiver request last month, telling them he would not pay the $1,300 fine.
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